Boldo's Armory
Magic Collectable Card Games Board Games Role-Playing Games Miniatures
The Armory Artists Convention Schedule Sales Search









Games Day Baltimore 2002

If you have never been to a Games Day you have missed out on one of GW's truly obnoxious creations. Games Day is a Junior High peprally for Warhammer and Warhammer Fantasy. There is a stage with a screaming announcer, several female cheerleaders, and a thousand young fanatics all in a concrete bunker. Loud is a bit of an understatement. Of course they do have one of the largest rogue trader tournaments in the nation along with discounts on bits, preview of new minis, and a free $40 mini for signing up.

As usual Josh and I went to Games Day to buy as many minis as we could and play some warhammer. Unfortunately the Games Workshop security nazi's shut sown the min buying operation so we had to satisfy ourself with one very expensive rogue trader tournament.

I had brought a very standard army with lots of warriors a few cannons, no magic or runes and 20 or so shooters. The field was quite varied with 4 dwarf, 3 skaven, 3 dark elf, 8 lizardmen, 6 empire, 6 Vampire counts, 5 O&G, 3 wood elf, 3 chaos, and 1 high elf. Of course half the empire steam tanks showed up but what can you ecpect in a 40 person tournament.

My first round opponent was the same guy as last year, Rob Valenti who this year had Empire. He was fielding a Knightly order army of Grand Master, 3 blocks of knights, one block of knights of the inner circle, a steam tank with hellblaster, 16 or so crossbowmen, and a Warrior Priest. I set up well back of the start line with rangers in the woods and a cannon on either flank. He moved first and the steam tank misfield for 9 points of damage. I shot a lot of knights and moved back. When his charges failed I shot a lot more knights and then could win the combats and wait for the steam tank to misfire iteslf dead. It ended up being a rout as I just chassed his knights off the board.

In the second round it was Dwarf on dwarf beatings as I faced Earl Eastham's clan. He had a very shooty army with 39 crossbowmen in 2 blocks, and 25 thunderers. His one block of warriors was protected by 2 dragon slayers, a 275 pt lord and a 263 pt battle standard bearer. They were invincible. Fortunately it was a new diagnol setup and I put the rangers behind his cannon and big block of crossbowmen in a woods. I also set up heavily on his right side so most of my army would be out of the arc of some shooters. He went first and shot a cannon dead but that was his high point as I avoided his big block of troops by sacraficing one block of warriors and marching my big blocks into the thunderers while the rangers took care of 25 crossbowmen, a cannon and a dragon slayer. As the game was Board quarters he never had a chance reguardless of how fun he was to play.

Game three saw my dwarves facing Jason Pearl's Skaven. They were led by a grey seer, with a warlock engineer, a chieftan and a plague monk. The troops were 3 units of clanrats, 2 ratling guns, 2 warp fire throwers, some jezzails, a unit of slaves a unit of stormvermin, a unit of plague monks, a unit of gutter runners, rat swarms, and posion wind globidiers. The scenario was also breakthrough which is a problem for dwarves particularly when there are so many units of opponents. I choose to go first and shot the warp fire throwers dead and start to angle my line from the rangers to my cannon. He moved up and shot some things dead but not many rangers. I move to draw out the plague monks with my hammerers and leave there flank exposed to a flank then move the rangers to the edge of the woods to shoot the posion wind globeidiers. I shoot a ratling gun dead and half the PWG sho hold. He charges across the line and loses every combat. I am set up for the game as the plague monks held so I can now flank them, charge the PWG with the rangers and clean up. I end up overrunning into a unit in the center and as he has death frenzied his general's unit I am set to hold and flank them as well. I get the whole center of the board but lose two combats on the right and he runs 800 points of troops off the board to make it very close but I win by 19 points.

In the forth round I face Matt York's 317 rats. His army is a simple swarm with 6 clan rats, 6 slaves, 7 jezzails, 6 gutter runners, 2 ratling guns, 2 warlock engineers, and a rat swarm. The board has a diagonal set up and I try to overpower the center and right leaving the thunderers and a unit of clansmen to hold the left flank with the help of a woods and the edge of the board. I shoot a lot of slaves forcing panic tests but he wrecks the hammerers and then charges the rangers onlyto lose and be run down. I win the right but in the center his general and a clan rat unit beats my hammerers and general. I hold the left expertly using break tests and broken units to hide behind. In the center though my BSB and warriors with heavy armor and shield are slowly being flanked and when 14 crossbowmen kill only 1 slave in 2 rounds it is inevitible. So on turn 5 I am flanked but only down by 4 and with the BSB I should be able to hold out. When I fail to hit at the start of turn 5 he runs me down. The game ends with him up by 39 pts but as this was a quag hunt he has a random 300 point bonus so wins the game and the tournament.

I end up with best army and finish third for my trouble but leave with a killer headache and very sore legs.

Standings


Boldo: Brother Boldo
Webmaster: Patrick Ludwig
Website Design: Roger Wink

Last Modified on