Tourneying back the years: the Fox Lord’s battles at Marauder Mayhem tourney

The event – a huge success

My word, what a day! Ever since I first got into Warhammer Fantasy back in my adolescent years, I dreamed of bringing a fully-painted army onto the field of battle to take on themed armies commanded by great gamers. Yesterday, I finally got to do that.

OK, hands up: my “fully-painted” army was mostly my old early-noughties force, but it did the job.

Marauder Mayhem was a Warhammer 6^th edition 1-day tourney that took place in Shepperton (draw a triangle between Heathrow, Kingston-upon-Thames and Woking: Shepperton is bang in the middle, just off the M25/M3). It was brilliantly organised by Albert Barr of Warhammer 6^th edition Facebook fame, who ensured it ran to time, went smoothly and we all had a fun day.

The best thing about the day was that everyone was there for the enjoyment/nostalgia of Warhammer Fantasy. I didn’t come across any power-gamers or rule-quibblers. It made voting to Best Sport incredibly difficult; everyone was so friendly!

How the Fox Lord’s men got on

This was my first ever tourney and my first time playing properly with 2,000pts of Empire. So rather than go through a full narrative, I’ll just give a quick overview of the battles before going into what I learned.  

My army on the day

Battle 1 – Nico’s Bretonnians – Meeting Engagement

I was eager to play armies against which I’ve never been pitted. To my delight, I was to face Brets first. Fittingly for the army which the Perry brothers based on 100 Years French, they were commanded by a Frenchman – the friendly Nico.

The battlefield had ruins to my left and a forest to my right. This created a natural funnel for both armies. I placed my cannon on a hill (surprise!), Hellblaster in the centre and archers to cover the centre too. The aim was to create a killing ground where the Brets would be weakened before my knights – placed either side of the funnel – would slam into flanks. I was going the full Agincourt!

The battle started out extremely cautious, with neither of us wanting to advance into the funnel. The most momentous moment was my wizard miscasting on his very first spell, suffering a Wound but winning me the consolation prize of a Tomb Kings army book!

Happy bunny!

Eventually, Nico decided his softly-softly approach wasn’t very Bretonnian and he charged in. I chipped away at his knights, before they crashed into my spearmen – who had a trick up their puffy sleeves… A Griffon Standard, which doubles rank bonus! My enemy knew his stuff and had anticipated this by equipping his unit with the Banner of the Lady, which cancels rank bonus! Argh!

The three lance formations punched clean through my line. The battle seemed pretty much decided. Or so we thought.

then let the trumpet sound the tucket sonance and the notes to mount!

The three lances in a row presented a target which my canon could not miss! I was pretty chuffed at the damage.

My pistoliers rode to the rescue (you may see a pattern emerge), killing a single character which had kept my Inner Circle Knights locked in ineffectual combat on the right flank. Freed up, the Knights of the Prowling Fox chased after a lance formation which had got bogged down against a detachment of swordsmen – I kid you not! Granted, they had had support in the fight from the griffon, but he ran away while the swordsmen resolutely held firm.

I had by this point lost many men, but my knights and pistoliers fought back so bravely that I clutched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Result: Minor Victory – 1,829 Vs 1,306 (That’s a lot of dead men and horses on both sides!)

Battle 2 – James’ Skaven – Capture

My next battle was against another army I’ve never faced before: Skaven! Their general, James, is a member of the Guildford gaming club and very kindly talked me through the main quirks of Skaven armies, so that I wouldn’t get caught out on a rules point.

Though nervous about facing so many ratmen, I had a clear plan: park a unit of Knights of the Inner Circle on the objective, with my special banner spearmen and griffon general ready to support. The rest of the army would cover the flanks. Then just hope the rats didn’t have any tin openers.

Reader, they had tin openers.

Jezzails, Ratling Guns and Warp Lightening cut down my knights, who failed an astonishing number of armour saves! By turn 3, the knights on the objective had been slain and the captain was fleeing.

Turn 4 saw my griffon and spearmen move up, ready to retake the objective in the next turn. Alas, though I spent the first 3 turns hoping the battle would end quickly, I was gutted when at the end of turn 4 we rolled a one and the battle ended – with the ratmen just 2 inches closer to the objective then me!

To be fair, my troops took a real pasting and my opponent fully earned his victory. The dice could have been more friendly, but that is the game!

Result: Defeat (heavy casualties on my side only, though I forget the exact score)

Battle 3 – Ash’s Bretonnians – Pitched Battle

My final battle was to be against another Bret army, this time commanded by Ash – yet another friendly chap. The set-up was similar to the first battle, so of course I learned from my mistakes… not!

I went with the same Agincourt funnel killing zone strategy, with knights on either side and the weaker of the two spear units out on the left. There were 4 key differences which made it less disastrous in the first half than in my 1^st game though:

1. Ash was terrified on my canon. He hid one of his big blocks of knights behind a tower for most of the game.
2. I used my griffon to take out the pegasus airforce.
3. For some reason, Ash sent in his 2 small Knights Errant units one at a time, so I could deal with them piece-meal.
4. The Hellblaster worked well – before blowing up.

I dominated the centre and right flank, with the pistoliers riding round the tower to fire point blank into the rear of the knights hiding there. The knights fled and were soon destroyed.

But it all unraveled when the Bret knights on my left turned my flank and charge my centre.

Result: Minor Defeat (1,166 Vs 1,677 VP)

All in all, it was hugely enjoyable, with even my defeats being fun.

What didn’t work?

Magic

• Battle 1 (B1): miscast, then offered trebuchet a tempting target.
• Battle 2 (B2): far too ineffective magic resistance Vs warp lightening.
• Battle 3 (B3): didn’t do anything, as combats ended in one turn, so couldn’t cast Beast Cowers.

Answer: place Wizard more carefully & possibly look at another scroll caddy – if points can be found.

Griffon Standard:

• B1 & B3: having made killing zone unpalatable, I should have deployed the spearmen with Griffon Standard on the flank, where the banner would be of greater use. This could have avoided flanks collapsing (and thus won me B3).
• B2: didn’t get into combat.

Answer: put it where it is less expected/can make a real difference.

Elector Count on Griffon

• B1 & B2: spent both games lurking out of sight, making no use of Terror.
• B3: did defeat airforce, but later failed to make many kills.
• B1: when eventually got into contact, failed to make decent kills.
• B1 & B3: fled

Answer: don’t send in unsupported. Consider giving Magic Weapon. Keep trying him to see if worth the points.

Knights

• Failed to do much damage & often too shy to charge in – though they kept big Bret units in check for ages.
• Kept dying against rats through poor armour saves.

Answer: consider equipping a unit with Great Weapons. Combine with pistoliers.

Overall: 

Struggled with low strength attacks. Must get my Greatswords converted and painted.

What worked well?

Pistoliers

• MVP in every single game.
• Turned flanks and took out knights with their 2 x S4 armour-piercing shots.

I really wish I had painted a second unit up in time.

Memory cards

Got asked about these a lot. I have terrible memory and will usually forget to use a magic item/special rule at least once or twice per battle. Didn’t happen once with these memory prompts, though they do clutter the photos. Price worth paying until I get the hang of my list.

Detachments

I bloody love detachments – and that’s all there is to it!

Cautious starts then going for decisive kills

Great generals no doubt love taking the initiative, but until I get better at the game, I’ve found that being cautious and seeing what my enemy does before reacting with committed counter-attacks worked well in this tourney.

I’m sure I will think of far more lessons in the coming days, but that will do for now.

I that’s left to say is a huge thank you to my opponents, to the organisers, and to you for sticking around to read the whole post. Please feel free to leave comments here or under my FB/Instagram post - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Now… Where did I put my paintbrush?

*The Fox Lord*