Spearhead Rumble @ De Kolonisten tournament report

 So, my "debut" in a Spearhead format tournament, and it was played out at the De Kolonisten store in Turnhout.

And of course, I took along my beloved Idoneth Deepkin for this.  

 

 

Now, compared to the last time I was there, which was before the pandemic in 2020, namely at a Lord of the Rings event in july 2019, the store has moved a few houses down the street, to a roomier venue with an awesome play area... 

 

... and this was a very, VERY welcoming sight for sure!  Now, I bought from their take away though, as I was with the car, though I did try this alcohol free Ramon craft beer, and that was bloody good stuff to be honest.

 

 

We all got a lasercut template with the most used ranges in the game as a participation gift, and one of the participants, Michiel, provided everyone with some beer he had brewn especially for his wedding as well.

But, as we had 6 participants in the end today, it was time to go to the fields of battle, and aim for avoiding that final spot on the ranking.

The first game was against Wouter and his army of blood crazed tanks called Blades of Khorne.  Those Skullcrushers have about the highest armour in the game, but even his regular warriors sport a hefty 3+.  Add to that the fact they all dish out a bucket load of attacks and my small force of tinfoil wrapped elves, which was also the only force in the tournament that had not a single ward save somewhere, and I knew that I needed to hit hard.  Unfortunatly, he saved about 95% of my attacks, even with all my rending around, and my force was cut down mercilessly, resulting in a crushing 22-6 defeat.

For the second game, it was the two glass cannons of the game against each other, as I faced Diego and his Daughters of Khaine.  Except he has that gruelly strong archer unit of Melusai, an all around 6+ ward save, and three units returning.  I managed to break through his force a first time though, but got stalled in his centre when 3 witch elves refused to die, allowing his returning units to overwhelm me.  As a result I closely lost with 17-16, which was in the decider until the very end.  This was a great heap of fun, and we wherew laughing and chatting so hard that we didn't notice we had been pulling twists in turns 2 and 3 from the Aqshy instead of the Ghyran deck though...

Game three put me against Michiel, and his Kharadron Overlords.  Now finally a game my first ability of Tides and Dead and my Creeping Mist ritual of my leader would be of any use, and it payed dividents in hampering his massive firepower.  This allowed my force to first take out the smaller units (there inability to return models is a serious setback for them) before taking down the balloon and resulting in a 23-15 victory, at least my honour would be saved for today.

The final game was against Koen and the horrendously powerful Soulblight Gravelords.  Though I managed to assassinate his general in turn one, soon the Knights began their havoc along my forces.  I managed to put up a fight until the third round, but with my force then decimated, he overtook me on points in the final round as such as no aelf was left alive and a 17-14 defeat was my part.

So in the end I ended up in 5th place, having scored 2 game points and 60 glory in a tournament where I was often being crumped to death but all those plate wearing trains on the table.  But then the biggest suprise came though, as people outside the tournament had been asked to judge the best painted army, and my Idoneth took that trophy and accompanying gift voucher.  Which I didn't use, I just kept the voucher, which is a cool printed dice, to go in the cabinet along the force hehe.  But as this is now the second time in a row (the previous being the Underworlds event in Ekeren, and then before that there was a third place in the Benelux Clash) that I ended top spot in painting, it seems the old school Foundry style I use, inspired by Kevin Dallimore, is on the rise indeed.  

But thanks to the organisers for running this fun event, and I will definitly be visiting the store more for events in the future... and to buy more craft beers!

Now onwards to the next Spearhead event, the one I will be running and as such not be playing in normally, Spear and Shield I in Ekeren.