Written by Sage (free copy)
Here are some battle summaries from MOAB97.

Playing conditions were Scenario 10 except 2,400 points to be played in 2.5 hours (unrealistic), 75 point items, no forbidden rod, L3 Mage and one other of lesser level. No Dragons or Greater Daemons.

My army (Dark Elves) consisted of:
4 x 10 crossbow  LA SH RCB 
5 + 9 scouts                   <<< two units, one 5 , one 9
6 harpies
5 Witch Elves banner of sorcery

General ColdOne LA SH RCB
         Executioners, AofProtection, Black Amulet
Witch Elf Steed HA RCB
         FlailofSkulls, Heart of Woe
L2 Mage 2HW RCB Ashur Skull Staff
L2 Mage Coldone L RCB Destroy Scroll Bof Secrets
Assassin 2HW RCB Black Gem.
8 RBTs

I had intended using only 6 RBT's but my host (Carl Taylor) too learnt of the umpires foolish decision to use 50 point DE RBTs and was taking 10 !

He's a very competent player but seemed to suffer bad table terrain resulting in lower scores. I was not going to use 10, but I needed 8 to maintain some illusion of shooting dominance.

Game 1 vs HE   Calanthe

3 RBTS
8,8,9,9, longbowmen
8 Shadow warriors + champion + L3 mage
General + Battle standard + 6 Dragon princes 
Chariot

This army and the next two sufferred badly due to having only one mage.

Calanthe is legendary for his poor dice rolls. On his first turn he killed a mere 2 Harpies, as he was trying to reduce my RBT numbers to the point where he could bring out his Dragon Princes from behind a hill. Thereafter my superior shooting removed his shooting assets, though this was initially slow as he had set up out of my RCB range.

Eventually harpies took out 1 RBT. General killed 8 Longbows. Fiery convocation removed the shadow warriors that were proving troublesome to hit in the forest. Cast again it killed his L3 Mage but he escaped then soon thereafter used a mental duel and lost the only wound he had. I think he realised what he'd done when I reminded him escape no longer returns all your wounds :)

General manoeuvered to what I estimated was just out of the DP's charge range. Calanthe did it anyway, hoping to recoup some VPs, failed and was left sitting between a hill and a forest, right in front of 8 RBT's. His general survived. The army didn't.

Game 2 vs HE

This player was in his late teens and still learning the game. It was over in turn 2 and I spent quite a while talking tactics and recommending future purchases. He main problem was numerous units of 6 archers.

In his first turn his Silverhelms marched forward. A unit of crossbows in front of them failed their disobedience test and charged them. I forgot about hatred and sent my general charging in too, to avoid any nasty (according to my false logic) break tests. Dismal dice saw me taking Break tests at -2. My general fled, but the crossbowmen stayed, allowing him to rally. The crossbowmen died next turn but the silverhelms did not outlive them by more than a turn. His mounted general died to a fiery convocation which had no trouble penetrating Meteoric Iron.

Game 3 vs Empire

12 halflings Bw
40 Halberds + L3 mage + Hero Ruby chalice
+ Det 12 Crossbows
+ Det 16 HGuns 
12 Halberds
10 Flaggellants
7 Knights + champion
WarWagon Cannon Hellblaster
General on Griffon

General flies high, charges the L2 Shaman I used as bait as she had useless spells. She fails to rally, goes offtable. General charges an RBT, flees offtable, followed by the general. Returns and eats and RBT crew who I leave in place as everyone nearby is protected by a hand of glory (let him have one successful combat)

Witch Elf kills flaggellants over two turns after they have been reduced from shooting. At the end of the game she charges the Empire general, killing the wyvern and making the general break offtable.

The umpire prevents my harpies from charging the hobbits because I can only see a couple of figures due to a wall midway between us. They go elsewhere and gobble a cannon crew after slowing some marchers.

Due to my opponent having only a single Mage (though the umpire allowed him to use grey magic), I had fiery convocation crisping the big halberd unit just about every magic phase. This was just as well given the presence of of a Ruby Chalice. Witch Elves cut down the few remaining figures. My general charges a reduced unit of 12 halberds, routing them after two turns of combat, pursuing into the immobilised Warwagon and destroying it, panicing the hellblaster crew. Shot his shooters and knights, leaving a surving champion who charges the witchelves with no effect.

Game 4 vs Undead Richard Naco (Cancon Umpire)

Liche on Chimera Cloak of Shadows, Staff of Damnation, ?
2 Chariots + Magic standard
6 Carrion
13? Mummies + L2 Necro + Wight champion
1 Wraith as a Regt.

In this game the umpire enforced a permanent change from the advertised scenario ten deployment. A 24" separation with a 4" creep forward for one unit per difference in deployment numbers.

As the Undead had so few deployments this meant that any carrion acting as in a dispersed manner would be able to charge several RBTs in the first turn - unacceptable. I therefore set up in a battery of 6 protected by general and witchelf.

The carrions charged Harpies who elected to stand rather than risk not fleeing far enough or going offtable. They failed to wound, I inflicted 2 and the carrion were destroyed when my general later charged. The rest of the game consisted of the Liche terrorising and breathing on crossbowmen, out of charge arc of my characters, but I did shoot down the two chariots and won on table quarters as his mummies were hiding in a disputed quarter and he found his liche alone was incapable of disputing two of my three quarters.

Game 5 vs Undead (got 3rd place)

12 Mummies + L3 Liche [Stof Damnation, Bof Secrets, Van horstmans, Pot Knowledge] 
           + L2 Necro [Destroy Scroll Black gem] + two mummy 
           tomb kings [MTKCrown Blessed Sword / ??]
12 Carrion in 3 ranks 
10 Skeletons SH HA DHW? 

The undead army hide, doing most of its work with summoned skellies. Twice I failed 2+ Destroy magic dispel rolls on Summon undead Horde, but my Destroy Scroll removed Wind of Death. Flying high carrion kept my L3 mage in a building with the witch elves most of the game, so she was out of range of most spells, so I drained magic several times. On the first failure by his L3 Necro, the umpire allowed him to "discard" the wind of death spell already lost to my destroy scoll.

The carrion charged harpies manoeuvring to flank the mummies in conjunction with the witch elf. The harpies elected to flee, but a big roll took them offboard. This did remove their threat to my L3 Mage however.

A summoned unit van helsed into an RBT who were later aided frontally by a unit of crossbows. My General failed a stupidity test just as he was about to charge them two turns later, but eventually destroyed them after they broke the crossbows and destroyed the RBT crew after several rounds fighting. Scouts about to charge into their rear were also intercepted by another summoned and van helsed unit in their rear after I had already dispelled it 4 times that turn, leading to them being caught in pursuit and another unit being charged and broken due to rank bonus.

[Oh bugger. I just realised that he was using Book of Secrets to recast Van Hels. After this undead player defeated my host, I told him post-game that this wasn't allowed. Looks like this undead player is a bit slow to adapt to corrections and I was too tired at that point to realise he was doing exactly the same to me. Bugger! I would have won that game too. ]

My opponent was making excellent use of covering terrain and my shooters had little opportunity to do anything that game.

My Witch elf charged the character laden mummies and though I tried to avoid the expected black gem wearer who I assumed would be the MTK next to the L3 Necro, it turned out to be on the L2 Necro I contacted so I had no chance to inflict massive damage with flail of skulls and heart of woe. His Necro was worth 2VP to the witch elfs 1VP though. The L3 Necro was voluntarily reducing Str and Tgh with Bof Secrets so I theorised he had Van horstmans.

This battle was drawn thanks to two undisputed table quarters I held on the non-combat flank of the table.

Game 6 vs Undead (got 2nd place on countback)

This was a more traditional army except for an umpire-allowed change to magic levels. Player made excellent use of the large amount of terrain on the table to restrict my shooting.

General (L2 Necro) [Staff Damnation, PoKnowledge, Cursed Book] + 11? Mummies 
L3 Necro + 7 Skeleton Cav Doomrider banner 
Wraith in Chariot with Hellbanner          Is this correct ???  (tonyko)
6 Carrion
Skeleton unit + 2 Chuckers hiding in forest 

Carrion flew high, fought several rounds with Harpies and eventually flew down, on RBT crew who fled and later rallied. The Mummies, Chariot and cav were advancing behind cover when I TPed Assault of stone on them, destroying the chariot, droppping 3 wounds on cav and 2 wounds on mummies. The cavalry withdrew due to my general and Witch elf coming into the forest to intercept them. Then followed the fiasco with the Gaze of nagash and my Generals death. Much of the army was protected by Gaze of Nagash, and I don't think anyone fled offtable except the harpies still flying high. I shot down a summoned unit. The WitchElf and another Assault of Stone took out the cavalry after the Necro made a tactical withdraw from the unit. Some crossbowmen and an RBT had advanced to where they could actually see some of his army and reduced the general down to one wound. Might have killed him except that the RBT missed all 4 shots on a 4+.

My L2 mage on coldOne (thanks for the suggestion Rob!) teleported into a hidden skullchucher and wiped it out. The undead retaliated by trying to Wind of Death the mage. I avoided dispelling it as I might get lucky on the 4+ roll, but ended having to use Escape card I held for just that contingency.

Apotheosed my general back at the end of the game even though the VP were still awarded to my opponent. (It's the principle of the thing! )

Another draw.

Game 7 vs Chaos (Zeus - 4th? place)

Slaaneshi General [chaos armour rune shield, ?Atrazar, ? flail chaos] steed. 
2 x 5 flamers 
10 harpies 
9 Warriors on foot chaos armour sh + L3 mage [chaos familiar ??]
        + L2 Mage [spell familiar] + khorne champion hiding in forest

Due to multiple 4" creep forwards: what is this ? (tonyko) First unit of Flamers charge RBT set forward to tempt chargers. Crew flees and rallies while witch elf unit charges down hill into flank. They hold first round as only two WE are fighting, but break next round due to extra lap round attacks. They outdistance me but the WE's force them to flee off the flank table edge from a charge before they get to rally.

Harpies chase another RBT crew who flee, then rally. Harpies take panic tests from shooting and magic casualties from Arnzipals Black Horror which also hits slaaneshi general but fails to kill him. They fly high in their second turn.

Second unit of flamers charge crossbowmen. Assassin emerges, hits 3 times, wounds 3 times, but flamers save 3 times (that's fair isn't it?) Assassin Black gems a flamer to avoid dying or being broken. Flamers inflict 4 casualties, receive 1 or 2 and break crossbows despite generals Ld bonus within 12". Fail to catch and Flamers shot down in my first turn.

I move harpies in front of Slaaneshi general, keeping a forest behind them, to stop him charging units in the heart of my deployment zone. In his second turn he fails to charge them due to some faulty logic, instead going around the harpies to seek cover in the forest.Tzeentch calls away one of his wizards some some important duty.

I forgo my magic phase when two cards gave me a single power card, forgetting that the L2 mage with Arnizipals had been moving forward to get another cast at the General. She could have used her Book of Secrets. Another of those critical things one forgets at the end of a tiring competition.

Won anyway, so not that critical I guess. Again I had the advantage of table quarters, but did not need it. Overall this source of VP came in very handy to me over the course of the convention. One of the big advantages of armies with numerous, low points cost units I guess. Those 2 units of scouts did more than any other elements in my army in terms of denying opponents VPs or seizing them for me. Armies with 2-4 tough, high cost units have difficulty covering enough of the board and are further constrained if 1 or 2 of those units have to be hidden to avoid dangerous elements of the enemy (eg my general, witch elf and RBT's)

The day after the convention I played Wargfangs Orcs. I went back to an older list design with fewer RBT's

6 RBTs
10 Corsairs [Banner of Wrath] (which I forgot to use tilll the last
        magic phase) 
2 x 10 Crossbowmen 
5+9 scouts 
6 harpies 
6 Witch Elves with [banner of sorcery] 
General on cold one 
2 Witch elves on steeds
Flail Skulls/Heart of Woe and Destroyer / Aof Fortune 
2 Mage
no assassin.

18 Black Orcs Standard? + general + L3 SO Shaman
16 Biguns spear SH Std Gorks war banner
20 Ngob SB Std Mus
25 Ngob DHW Bad Moon Banner + Big Boss Ngob executioners + L2 Ngob
shaman 
14   Orc CB 
 2   Chariots
 1   Snotwagon
 1   Bob the Giant
7-11 Wolfriders with Gobbo Bigboss heart of woe

I got first turn !!! 

I kept distributing my shooting around to maximise panic tests, but Wargfang didn't want to cooperate by failing any panic tests that I remember. Of secondary concern was reducing unit sizes below that required for waagh magic, but were slower in coming than I hoped for.

The harpies flew over the top of the wolfriders to land with Black orcs in front of them. The Ngob units to either side could not release fanatics toward them due to intervening chariots so released two each to their front. As they would impede glorious charges by my general and two witch elves I shot them dead with my characters.

He charged harpies with BO's. I fled over the wolfriders to escape, and this had the desired effect of reducing the wolfrider movement. They rallied.

I charged bob the giant with a witch elf. Inflicted 4W with the flail of skulls to add to the one from 1st rounds shooting. He yelled to remove my frenzy. O Wnds and another yell next round and finally killed him the round after. Wargy had been reluctant to strike suspecting Black Amulet or Heart of Woe, which was the case.

My other WE charged the L2 mage in the Ngob DHW unit. I was silly enough to challenge, allowing the Shaman the chance to retreat to the rear of the unit, rolled poorly and was beaten in combat resolution, then killed next round by an executioners axe which rolled to strike first. Two rounds of shooting at 4 wolf chariots (yes, 4) had not removed one but left the other with two wolfs. It and the wolf riders charged the harpies who would have stayed if wolfriders had been unsupported. They fled, allowing the wolfriders to convert their charge into corsairs, who broke the wolfs, even though they were in a single rank.

My General charged the chariot and killed all of it after two rounds of combat, aided by additional damage from the heart of woe on the Bigboss wolfrider when I shot him dead. My general saved. He also survived two total powered curse of years from the L3 Shaman.

My L2 shaman tried to charge 7 crossbowmen but failed a stupidity test. Succeeded next round when there were only two. Killed em both, causeing the Ngob DHW to panic and run. Shot all the Black Orcs leaving the BO general and savage orc shaman sitting by themselves on the last turn, along with the remaining Biguns and some Ngob archers. Chris was interested to find out how his army would handle a list with so many shooters. He found out.

Like many, I'm sure he rejoices the passing of the 50 point RBT.
_

Regards,    Sage.

Wisdom is beyond price my son, be grateful that you have it.
                Imperious the Monk, Ladyhawke
Expound oh sage, and elucidate.
                E.E."Doc" Smith, Skylark DuQuesne