Hammerhal Spearhead Tournament, Livingston, 27th July
Filed Under: Gaming
Last Sunday I attended an Age of Sigmar Spearhead tournament run by the West Calder Wargamers club.
I brought Yndrasta’s Spearhead, one of the two Stormcast Eternals Spearheads. It consists of Yndrasta, a Knight-Vexillor, a Stormstrike Chariot, three Annihilators with shields and two units of 5 Vanquishers. Yndrasta and the Annihilators don’t show up until battle round 3, so games can feel quite cagey until then.
A mix of the old Fire and Jade and new Sand and Bone battlepacks was used in this event. Evenly-numbered tables used the former, and odd tables the latter.
Round 1
The first round started late, but only by a little, at 12:45. I was matched against Jonathan’s Daughters of Khaine, on a Fire and Jade table. I lost the roll off, was made the Defender and chose the Ghyran board.
He went first and immediately pinned all my infantry with his Doomfire Warlocks (cavalry). This was a problem because 5 of them is 15 total Health, and while they don’t have a good save, it’s still a lot to chew through. Also, once one of them is dead, the Vanquishers no longer get their +1 Damage against units with 5+ models. On the upside, they didn’t do much damage. My chariot was free to kill the Witch Aelves on the left flank and also to do a cheeky pile-in to bring the Melusai Blood Sisters (snake lady archers) into combat and turn off their shooting. I eventually killed all the Warlocks only for them to come back as Reinforcements, but not before one of my units of Vanquishers had dealt with the Witch Aelves on the right flank. Then Yndrasta and the Annihilators showed up and it was all over. I won 22-10.
The Daughters of Khaine Spearhead seems a little hard to use. Most things in it die very easily and don’t do quite enough damage to make up for it. The only consolation is that the Witch Aelves and Warlocks can be brought back as Reinforcements… but that’s not that great.
The army looks cool as hell though.
Round 2
In the second round I went up against Shaun’s Seraphon. Fire and Jade again. Once again I lost the roll off and was the Defender, and once again I chose Ghyran.
Dreading a repeat of Monday’s game against the same Spearhead, I tried to deploy as far back and squished up as I dared. It paid off. Shaun took the first turn, but failed all his charges. I was safe from the Kroxigor and Carnosaur for one turn at least. In my turn the chariot and one unit of Vanquishers went to deal with the Sauruses on the right while the Knight-Vexillor and the other unit charged the Carnosaur, hoping to get a turn’s worth of damage in against it before the Kroxigor got involved. Unfortunately Shaun had the Countercharge card, and brought the Kroxigor into the fight. The Stormcast were remarkably durable against the big lizards (but also remarkably ineffective at hurting them!), and the brawl in the middle lasted for most of the game; nearly all my starting models died on the central objective, fighting the Kroxigor and the Carnosaur. When Yndrasta came in, she basically soloed the Carnosaur, dealing 4 wounds to it with her throwing spear followed by another 9 wounds with her sword. Despite being quite behind on points, having been holding on by the skin of my teeth up to this point, I scored 7 points in the final turn and made the game a draw: 18/18.
Round 3
Chris’ Gitz. Fire and Jade again. Lost the roll off again. Defender again. Chose Ghyran again.
Vanquishers delete grots like nobody’s business.
24/18
Interlude
In between Rounds 3 and 4 we had some pizza and voted on which army we thought was best painted. There was a lot of talent on display. Here’s my Spearhead posing for the camera:
Round 4
Richard’s Ironjawz. The undefeated champions of the event so far, and this time the pattern of playing on evenly-numbered Fire and Jade tables broke because I was on Table 1! Words of encouragement from Richard’s previous opponents were welcome, but they were not enough to save me from my own unpreparedness – this would be my second ever game in the new Sand and Bone battlepack, and my first ever against the Ironjawz Spearhead.
I can’t remember if I won the roll off, but at some point I made a decision to let the orruks go first. This was my first, and biggest, mistake.
All the orruks move 4”. Which is slow. It makes being charged by them feel unlikely. But it’s not. They have an ability, Mighty Destroyers, that lets one of their units move 3” every hero phase. So that unit of Ragerz on the right were able to finish their movement phase 7” away from where they started, an easy charge away from my chariot and, thanks to the gap I’d left between it and the terrain, my Knight-Vexillor.
I won’t go into all the grisly details. In summary, Ironjawz are surprisingly mobile, very tough and hit hard. While I think my dice rolls were also pretty disappointing, they wouldn’t have saved me from the terrible opening.
In the end I only scored 11 points. Richard scored 20. A crushing defeat.
In all my games I chose the same Regiment Ability (the one that gives you a 6+ ward while defending an objective) and Enhancement for Yndrasta (strike-first when she charges). In hindsight I think I might have done better with the Enhancement that lets units contesting an objective pile-in and deal a mortal wound on a 4+. The bonus mortals would have been great against the high-armour Ironjawz, and the extra movement would help counter Mighty Destroyers a bit. Much to think about.
Conclusion
I placed fifth, and probably would have been on the podium had I not done so poorly in my final game. I was super pleased!
The results are all on Best Coast Pairings, although you have to be a subscriber to see who played who.
During the awards ceremony it turned out my army had been voted Best Painted! Which was a lovely surprise. I know I’m a good painter and my models get a lot of compliments anyway, but there was definitely a thrill to getting a little prize for them.
I hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me…
All in all I had a great day. Big thanks to the members of West Calder Wargamers who organised the event. They were all lovely to meet, knew how to run a good event, and seem to have a plan to grow the AoS scene in the Lothians. I spent the train ride back to Edinburgh chatting to another attendee about his own hobby experiences. I’m already planning to attend the next Spearhead tournament the club hosts in October – the only question is what Spearhead to bring…