Halflings go to Brum: Part 1 of the Bullrun Tournament report

Yesterday I packed up the troops and jumped in the car. We went to the fantastic Bullrun event run by the lovely Steve Hildrew. It’s a 1,995 point event, with command dice, and a real focus on hobby. As a result, before attending all players had to attest to the sort of hobby skills they had applied to their armies. I returned the form somewhat optimistically saying that my army would include conversion work, freehand design and advanced techniques such as wet blending. At that point the only part of my army that qualified was the vomit on Greedygut’s apron, which whilst technically was wet blending, didn’t feel like if fitted with the intention underlying the scoring. This led to a bit of a speedy completion of my Pride of the Shire’s project that has been sat on my desk for about eight months, better late than never I suppose.

Following the last event I’ve decided to experiment with two Iron Beasts, affectionately known as pigs, but to accommodate this I’ve replaced the Stalwart horde with braves and the harvester has gone. As this was a 1,995 event the cavalry horde has gone too, and this was a command dice event I decided to invest in two extra white dice, because being able to add an extra point of thunderous charge to Juggers is just the best feeling in the world.

Unfortunately, due to timings I haven’t been able to write up the whole event, so I’m planning on writing the three games up separately over the next few days. Without further ado let’s get into the first game against the Forces of the Abyss. By way of a little help in the photos the Abyssal Horsemen are the large flying bug things and the Berserkers are the single monstrosities on the big bases.

The game begins

The first scenario was Compass Points. I was more than a little concerned about this match up because of how fast everything was in my opponent’s list. It’s the sort of list that punishes mistakes quickly and terminally. In addition to this there was a bit of a mismatch in terms of styles that felt, in my opinion, more in my opponent’s favour. Halfings are great at delivering loads of chip damage and taking things off over a period of time. The Forces of the Abyss have loads of regeneration and each of the main units could potentially remove each of my units in one shot. Add to that the Well of Soul’s ability to also remove damage for injured units, I knew I had to do my best to get multi charges and remove units quickly. Brain power was going to be required.

Blocking charges was going to be the order of the day and doing what I could to kill off the gargoyles as quickly as possible. I decided to ignore the right flank as I wanted to be able to concentrate my units in such a way as to make multi charges as easy as possible. I was happy when one of the horsemen regiments was deployed on the far right as the terrain meant I probably had at least three turns before they could meaningfully get involved in the fighting.

On the left my Juggers moved slowly forward, keeping out of reach of the Berserkers and the Grenadiers positioned themselves for a blocking jump. In the centre, the fliers supporting the pigs, trolls and braves did the same. By turn two the demons were starting to close and action had to be taken. The grenadiers on the left found an uncomfortable position, in front of the Berserkers and horsemen that gave them only one option in the next turn, whilst the flying Muster Captain went into the central regiment of horsemen and the other grenadiers went into the central Berserkers. Not surprisingly, by turn three there were no more grenadiers on the table. However, careful positioning on the left meant the demons had not been able to stop a double charge from the Juggers into the Berserkers which saw the first abyssal unit leave the table, shortly followed by some gargoyles, thanks to the muster captain and Greedyguts.

In the centre things were starting to heat up as the chaff units disappeared and the core units faced off against each other. Fortunately, the braves managed to resist a charge from the horsemen who had crept up the right flank and even more fortunately the flying Muster Captain survived the first round of combat with his regiment of horsemen.

At this point the power of the Well of Souls became apparent as the five wounds done by the flying Muster Captain disappeared from the dark knights and he was facing another round of combat with fresh faced opponents.

Things start to break

The left flank was not in a good place for the abyssals. The remining unit of horsemen were backed into a corner and forced to make a hindered charge that failed to deliver anything meaningful. The result was a flank charge from a command dice enhanced Jugger regiment that sent them scattering whilst the other Juggers broke off and tried to run down one of the harbingers. Sadly, a double 1 stopped them in their tracks.

In the centre the pigs and trolls removed the remaining horde of Berserkers whilst the flying Muster Captain dug in for another round of combat. It was at that stage the Well of Souls charged the Wild Lancers in the centre and the horsemen from the right broke the braves. This meant all available halflings found themselves facing away from the beleaguered Muster Captain to address the new direction of threat.

Claiming the points

After three rounds of combat the flying Muster Captain was crushed beneath fire shod hooves and the horsemen turned to face the new line that had been created. Seeing the Muster Captain fall the Juggers that had chased down the harbinger turned their attention to those responsible. With a little help from the Sauceror, and more command dice, they spurred on their mounts and together with the Pride of the Shires smashed into the wrongdoers, turning them to mush.

The Pride of the Shires then claimed the three point objective whilst the Juggers turned their attentions on the final stand in the centre where the final horsemen and the Well of Souls found themselves facing off against the other pig and the trolls. The abyssal warriors had all but given up the fight by this stage, and as the Juggers flanked the horsemen and the trolls claimed the two point objective turn seven ended with a six to zero win to the halflings.

Not a bad start to the day.

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