By the Fates Tournament Report

 

The most tentacle-y boy you've ever seen

Queensland has recently been blessed with a spate of 600-point tournaments, and I was extremely happy to be heading off to another one this weekend. Hosted at Irresistible Force once again, the tournament was organised by David Thompson and went off almost without a hitch. I had some of the best games of MESBG I’ve ever had against a trio of lovely opponents, and had an absolute blast.

My list

 

At the last two tournaments of this size I’ve run my horde Dunharrow list, achieving a fair amount of success with the ‘push everything forward and hide the King of the Dead’ approach. It’s a brutally efficient list and one I’ve enjoyed playing a lot, but for this tournament I felt like stepping outside my comfort zone for something with a few more tricks. Enter, the Watcher in the Water.

This beasty was my first love when I returned to the hobby, but I’ve never had a chance to take it to a tournament before. It has three main schticks: one, it deploys by bursting forth anywhere on the field; two, it has a brutal 6 Attacks but no Strike; and three, it has a special Tentacles shooting attack that can grab enemy models and yank them into combat with you. This combos especially well with a Bat Swarm, as careful positioning can see enemy heroes pulled into combat with both the Watcher and the Bats (as well as any other models you can position nearby) for a near-guaranteed demise.

Supporting this terrifying combo is the standard swathe of Goblins, there primarily to hold the line while my Watcher won me the game. What I wasn’t so sure on was the final portion of the list. I initially had a Cave Troll pencilled in, hoping to use the threat of the Watcher to keep it safe from enemy heroes. But a suggestion from Rowan May saw me try out the Spider Queen, and a couple of practice games saw me fall instantly in love. It’s fragile, but it projects so much threat and solves all my objective problems in one foul swoop. With a cheap and cheerful Giant Spider added in for support, I had an army list ready to go.

 

Warband 1:

Durburz (Army Leader)

14 Goblins (6 with shield, 6 with spear, 2 with bow)

Bat Swarm

 

Warband 2:

Goblin Captain

11 Goblins (5 with shield, 5 with spear, 1 with bow)

 

Warband 3:

The Watcher in the Water

 

Warband 4:

The Spider Queen

Giant Spider

 

31 models, 9 Might, 3 bows, 3 fast models

 

Lots of gribblies and some Goblins to support

Normally at this point I’d make a joke about how I then painted and based everything a month in advance, built a display board and then got in plenty of practice games. Not. Haha. In this case though, I was unusually disciplined and actually did all those things, getting everything to a satisfactory hobby level and playing around a dozen practice games to get my eye in. This list is a lot more complicated than my Dunharrow, and its list of sneaky tricks is seriously long. On the flipside, it can also fall apart at the drop of a hat. In practice that only happened twice (both times against Elven lists that killed swathes of Goblins before we even hit combat), but I was expecting some rough matchups into shooting lists on the day. Ultimately, it was a list based on a specific meta call that people were going harder on combat heroes than magic, with the Beornings being the perfect example of this trend. Perhaps alone of everyone at the event, I was convinced my Bears matchup was heavily in my favour! Read on to see whether that call worked out on the day…

Round 1 v Jack Edwards’ Goblintown, 5:0

That's a lotta Goblins

Matching up into Goblintown round 1 was a bit of a concern, as the faction’s massive numbers can put me behind from the get go in many scenarios. Thankfully, Round 1 was Clash By Moonlight, so I could turtle up behind a wall and wait for Jack to come to me.

Oooooh boy that's an intimidating force

We turtling today

The first few rounds basically involved the horde swarming forward, while the Scribe brought in Goblins on my board edge and the Watcher and Spider Queen killed them in amusing ways (including Hurling a Goblin into a conga-line of his friends, which was great fun).

The Watcher and Spider Queen playing with their food before the horde arrives

Eventually the lines hit, and the Goblin King went wading in. 

The King arrives, but I have a trap prepared for him... Also, note that the empty black base represents the Watcher. He has too many tentacles to actually place on the table!

I set up a cunning kill box for the him, ready to hammer him with a Spider, the Watcher, the Bat Swarm and Durburz, but Jack responded by flinging Gollum through my lines with the Ring to tie up the Bat Swarm. That meant I couldn’t risk pulling in the King, so instead I targeted a Goblin Captain, figuring it would still get me the three points I needed on the ‘kill heroes’ tracker. Of course, I promptly rolled a single shot with my tentacles, which then missed on a ‘1’. Hmm.

Gollum heroically sacrifices himself to save the Goblin King, only for my dice to refuse to roll hits anyway

As this was going on, the Spider Queen had gotten bogged down outside my lines. But some great Hurls from her were taking their toll, and making up for the Hurl the Goblin King pulled off down my line. Also, amusingly, Gollum lost his fight to the Bat Swarm and a Goblin, got Trapped and died instantly. Huh. The dice gods giveth and the dice gods taketh away.

I managed to set up another kill-zone for the King, only to again roll a single shot and then a ‘1’ to hit. The Spider Queen was able to make up for it somewhat though, by using a Heroic Combat to Hurl (killing 4 more Goblins) and then pounce on Grinna, eviscerating the Goblin hero with three Might left on the table. By this point the rest of the Goblin horde was lapping over the edges of my wall, leaping up onto it then charging down into my own forces. The attrition was brutal on the poor Goblins, but I was also losing enough models that Breaking was a possibility.

The next turn saw yet another kill-box set up for the Goblin King, and yet again I rolled a ‘1’ for shots and then a ‘1’ to hit! This was getting a little annoying, but the issue wasn’t yet terminal. He Hurled again, killing several Goblins and stripping the Fate off both the Captain and the Watcher, but was unable to successfully pin down the Spider Queen and stop her continuing to massacre his own Goblins.

My internal monologue was mostly screaming at this point

At this point there was only enough time for two more turns, and the scores were tight. I was going to pick up the 3 VPs for killing more heroes than Jack, but couldn’t kill all 5 of his heroes before the game to take that to 5 VPs. I’d killed 25 Goblins, but Jack’s Break point was 38 so… those points weren’t on the table. The concern was that I was only 7 models from Breaking myself, which would award Goblintown 5 VPs and the win. Concerning.

Things got still more concerning when the Watcher rolled its third consecutive ‘1’ for number of shots, and then it’s third consecutive ‘1’ to hit! You can’t make this kind of thing up, honestly. That left the Goblin King free to slam into another two Goblins, but a cunning Hurl from the Spider Queen managed to knock him prone and slow him down for a turn. A couple more of my Goblins were hacked down, but the lines were holding. Just.

Finally, with 15 minutes left on the clock, the Watcher managed to successfully hit the Goblin King and yank him across the lines. He slotted in to my carefully-prepared gap, being Trapped by a Giant Spider, Durburz, the Bat Swarm and the Captain. The Watcher easily won the combat, before the Moria death squad inflicted a whopping 14 Wounds. Jack’s Blubber saves were hot, but eventually the dice bowed to the laws of probability and the Goblin King went down.

The Goblin King finally goes down, just as my lines begin to crumble

Across the rest of the front, my Goblins managed to hold on just well enough to avoid Breaking. With Goblintown still themselves 8 models off Breaking, I was able to pull out a close 5:0 win.

This game was an absolute blast: Jack is always a delight to play against, and fielding big monsters against Goblins is perhaps the most enjoyable way to play MESBG. The dice definitely had some hijinks, but ultimately the scenario heavily favoured my sneakier list against the pure horde approach.

 

Round 2 v Jacob Deem’s Rivendell, 6:1

I absolutely loved this diorama. Those are horses in the Bruinen!

The two losses I experienced in practice games were both against Elf lists with heavy shooting, so matching up against Rivendell Knights was… not ideal. On the plus side, Hold Ground was a decent scenario for the matchup, and Jacob had brought along Aragorn, who’s worse against my list than a caster with Blinding Light. Still, the prospect of marching into the face of 9 Elven bows was not an appetising one.

Oh good, the best kiting army in the game. Charming

This pic doesn't really show anything useful, I just thought it looked pretty

The first 5-6 turns were relatively uneventful, as my Goblins came in together on the north edge while Elves arrived in the east. Several turns of shooting saw a number of Goblins picked off, while Jacob tried to work out how to tackle my Watcher-backed blob.

 

Shockingly enough, Jacob wasn't interested in engaging this boy in a a head-to-head clash

In a cunning move, he began calling Heroic Accuracies to try and snipe the Bat Swarm. A few spiking rolls saw all 4 wounds stripped off, and suddenly I was left with no good way to counter his two powerful heroes. Oh no.

The Bats go down and I'm feeling pretty concerned

Jacob decided to press his advantage and thundered into combat, and I had to change tack. Instead of setting up a death-zone for a hero, I set up a couple of mini death-zones to yank Knights into. 

The Knights go thundering in, only for 3 of their buddies to disappear into the maw

The Watcher grabbed three, killing one personally and then setting up another to be ripped apart by the Giant Spider and a third by the Spider Queen. Aragorn Heroic-Combatted his way through my lines, but Elrond lost his fight and I was feeling pretty good about my situation. 

The inevitable Heroic Move-off went Jacob’s way, and Aragorn slammed into the Watcher ready to start chopping. Amusingly, Jacob actually failed his Terror check with a double-1, forcing Aragorn to burn all his Will to make it in. It didn’t impact the game at all, but it was very amusing. With the Spider Queen also in the combat (plus a lone Goblin to get the Trap), it was all down to a classic Strike-off. We both hit F10 and got the ‘6’, but alas the 50/50 roll-off went to Good and Aragorn hacked down the Queen. Elsewhere, Elrond obliterated my Captain and a number of Goblins were ridden down, with the only saving grace being the Giant Spider killing another trapped Knight.

The Strike-off doesn't go my way, and I'm left feeling very concerned

My army was well and truly Broken, but I managed to win the second Heroic Move-off. This allowed me to pin down the Elves, with several Knights being yanked into traps by the Watcher. Elrond and Aragorn both called Heroic Combats and killed their opponents, but some careful placement had ensured they couldn’t get into Durburz without tagging his spear support and getting peeled off. Elrond slaughtered his way through another Goblin, while Aragorn charged into the Watcher one more time. This time Isildur’s heir botched his duel roll, allowing the Watcher to kill another Knight, dismount him and strip some Fate points. Finally, my Giant Spider killed its third Rivendell Knight as time was called.

Tallying up the points, we realised that that final kill was crucial. Not only did it Break the Elves, it also took me from having more models in the middle to having twice as many as Jacob. That last-minute twist took the game from a 3:3 draw to a 6:1 major win, a scoreline which in no way reflected the tightness of the battle. It was one of the most technical and interesting games I’ve ever played, and at the end of it we were both absolutely exhausted.

In writing this report I’m left pondering whether the better call with the Spider Queen was to call a Heroic Defence instead of a Strike when she took on Aragorn. It would have almost guaranteed that my Spider Queen survived the combat (probably with my Watcher taking a couple wounds instead) but would have also given up my best chance of killing Aragorn. At the time I felt that I was losing badly, so a ~50/50 chance to take out Aragorn and effectively win the game seemed like a great option. In hindsight I was actually still well ahead on points, and if I’d gone for the safer option of keeping the Queen alive I could probably have killed 2-3 more Elves in the final turn and likely guaranteed a victory. An interesting example of where keeping my eyes on the scoreboard and the clock would probably have dictated a different strategic approach to the one I ended up taking.

 

Round 3 v Josh’s Khazad-dûm, 12:1

Not a picture of this game, I just thought it looked stunning

After that mental workout, I was grateful to be matched into something my army is entirely equipped to deal with. Aside from being beautifully thematic, a list that’s invested 300 points into Durin and a King’s Champion is always going to be on the back foot against the Watcher. Capture and Control didn’t do the Dwarves any favours, forcing them to deploy on the line to contest the objectives. Even the terrain favoured Moria, with two chokepoints I could pin the Dwarves into to stop them swamping me.

Chokepoint One

Chokepoint Two

 

Spiders ready to sweep around and wreck havoc

Ultimately, the game was decided in the first two turns: the Watcher grabbed the King’s Champion on Turn 1 and ripped it to pieces, before doing the same thing to Durin on Turn 2. The Spider Queen and her Spider buddy slowly ground through Josh’s backfield, and my Goblins put up a solid fight all along the front.

Spiders gribbling their way through Josh's backfield

Goblins hold up the Dwarf Warriors after Durin gets shredded

Things didn’t go all my own way: the Hearthguard showed their quality, cutting through my lines at a quite respectable pace and easily Breaking me. One even managed to strip a Fate off Durburz after I yanked a model into combat with him. Oops! 

Not many Goblins left on this flank!

Unfortunately, once the Watcher was done killing Josh’s heroes (and had had his requisite turn of missing with all his shots) it was free to rampage, killing 6 Hearthguard and a banner over the space of three turns. The Spider Queen sent off a Broodling to flip Josh’s back objective before storming in behind the Dwarves to grind through and ultimately contest the centre. Finally, insult was added to injury by another Broodling, which charged into the Dwarf Warrior defending Josh’s last objective and fluked the kill. At that point Josh conceded, ending a very enjoyable but quite one-sided game.

Ultimately, my list was designed to stomp armies that rely on a couple of heroes for their killing power, and it did just that here. After all, what are Dwarves but slower bears?

My Round 3 scores were updated  after this after Josh sportingly pointed out that conceding meant he got a 0:12 

After Round 3, I was feeling pretty great. I was the only player on three major wins, and thanks to finally painting up a display board I should have maxed the available hobby points as well. I mentally ran the numbers, and it seemed like I had the highest BP score at the tournament. Unfortunately, the spreadsheet gods have clearly cursed me, as something had gone wrong behind the scenes. The placings were read out and I didn’t make the podium at all, an outcome which was obviously pretty confusing. Conferring with the TO afterwards, it appears that his spreadsheet had awarded me no points at all for my first round win, meaning I was effectively knocked out of the running for the podium. David was great, rapidly acknowledging that something had gone wrong on his end and taking responsibility for it, and I’m sure it will all get sorted out in the wash. Was definitely unfortunate to end the day on a slightly negative note though, especially after such a great tournament that was run so smoothly throughout.

Still, I can’t be too upset about any day that involved 3 excellent games against 3 delightful opponents. A bad day of MESBG beats a good day at the office, and this was an excellent day of MESBG!

 

Army Review

This army was an absolute blast to use. It’s obviously extremely powerful, with plenty of raw muscle to push through to three major wins. More importantly though, it’s just so different to anything I’d ever played. Dragging enemy heroes and warriors back across my lines to be paired off and taken out is ridiculously fun, and having all the combos of the Spider Queen layered on top of that was crazy.

I felt like all three games demonstrated the list’s capacities in a different way. Round 1 let it show off what it could do even while the dice are misbehaving, while Round 2 showed that it can still adapt to adverse circumstances like losing the Bat Swarm. Round 3, of course, was a straight showcase of everything working as intended and a scary enemy list getting torn apart.

Turns out that this guy is sneakily top-tier

The tweaks made to the list over the testing process really came into their own as well. In every game I was glad I had the Spider Queen instead of the Cave Troll and a Marauder, as having a second monster with Might was consistently great. Even in Round 2 where she died instantly, her capacity to Heroic Strike meant that that combat came down to a 50/50 roll-off, whereas a Cave Troll would have had no chance. The extra mobility obviously came in clutch in Round 3 as well, where it allowed me to swoop around and clear out Josh’s objectives with relative ease. If I’d had a Cave Troll I would have needed to try and force the Dwarves back off the central objective; because she was there I could just swoop in from behind.

The Spider Queen killed 4 Dwarves and flipped two objectives this turn. Great stuff!

Similarly, the Giant Spider was pretty great at zipping around and clearing off backfield models in Round 3, as well as massacring three Rivendell Knights in Round 2. I do think a Mirkwood Spider could probably have done the same job though, and with a bit of added flexibility in the webs it shoots. Just being able to say ‘I have a threat range of 18 inches to potentially Paralyse your leader’ would have forced opponents to take it into account. The F4, C3 and small base were all useful, but are probably less important than the Spider Webs on my single flex piece.

Spider casually hunting down Knights as everything looks like it's going wrong

Where to from here for the list? I have a 1000 point tournament coming up in November, which I will potentially scale this list upwards for. I’m currently torn between either adding in Goblintown to hit a mighty 80 models (plus more from the Scribe!) or teching into Angmar for a Witch King and some Barrow Wights. The latter would leave me with a much smaller and squishier force, but one that would absolutely terrifying the massed heroes I expect to see at 1000 points. Either way, I think the list is a great core for an upwards expansion, and I’d be confident it would serve me well.

 

Overall Tournament Review

 I had an absolute blast at this tournament. Aside from the one unfortunate scoring hiccup (which, as far as I could tell, only really affected me), everything ran smoothly all through the day. I had three excellent games against delightful opponents, and was really proud of my play throughout the day. Shockingly enough, when you play a bunch of practice games with a list it helps reduce the number of mistakes you make. Who knew? I also think I successfully judged the meta at the tournament, with only one caster in any of my games and only a handful at the whole tournament. In their place were a swathe of scary combat characters, which meant I was pretty confident matching up into anything in the room.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday, and I’m sure to be at the next event David runs!

Until next time, may your meta calls always pay off!