UK Masters Overview

OK so the UK masters was amazing, everything I had hoped it would be and then some.

64 players in a tournament, all of which were bringing their biggest and dirtiest lists to try to claim the title of the UK's finest. I brought my Welsh Open conquering Borka list and a Grissel list which unfortunately had to be modified the day before leaving for Birmingham due to the delay in the release of the Dire Troll Bomber.

Match 1: Borka vs Lich Lord Venethrax
This was an unusual list, Venethrax had 2 War Witch Sirens, a Skarlock, 3 Bonejacks, Nightmare, 2 Seethers and 2 Slayers. Against my Borka list with all his infantry this proved to be a fascinating encounter. I won the first turn and ran my army to the 22" point of the board in preparation for my feat turn. His jacks ran up to get get position to attack me next turn. My second turn I popped the feat and gave Pathfinder to the Long Riders plus Rage on 3 of them. One bonejack was wrecked from the impact and charge damage, and every single one of his jacks was either engaged or knocked down and many had suffered pretty serious damage while the Fennblades and Kriel Warriors ran up behind to offer second turn support. He cleared out 3 of the Long Riders and tried to get some blood rain going on my infantry behind, but the KSB protected them from the corrosion continuous effect. My next turn the Kriels charged and heavily damaged one of the Seethers with two CMAs and Horthol and the Fennblades together took down the two Sirens. Nightmare tried to go ghostly and trample to Borka to kill him but with a transfer and only 2 focus to buy attacks it wasn't going to happen. The Mauler killed Nightmare and Horthol and the three Champs killed the knocked down Venethrax thanks to Mosh Pit.

Match 2: Grissel vs Darius
A tier 4 Darius list could have been dangerous for my Borka spam, so I rolled with Grissel for the ability to engage his force quickly. One unit of sword knights on the flank were bombed to death by a unit of Runeshapers over three turns while on the other flank the Runeshapers were directly responsible for the assassination run on Darius. Tremor knocked down the Ironclad and Thunderhead while Mulg killed the Hammersmith sat between Darius and the Champion unit. Grissel gave them heroic ballad and cast flaming fists on two of the three who would be able to reach Darius and the three of them took him out for a 3rd turn caster kill.

Match 3: Borka vs pKreoss
This game was a bit of a steam roller, he had a max unit of Idrians with UA which were mowed down by a Long Rider charge on their way into the zealots who had used greater destiny to prevent them from being killed by the oncoming Fennblades, who instead ran around the back to threaten the choir and book along with the Fell Caller to help mitigate Kreoss's feat. Borka spent the entire game sat behind Windwall while benefitting from Stumbling Drunk, so the Redeemer drop and pop combo was never going to work. Long Riders killed the Fire of Salvation, Kell Bailoch, Visgoth and his Crew and Gorman in a single charge leaving the Kriel Warriors to run the other flank to leave Kreoss boxed in with nowhere to run. He tried a desperate 8 focus Immolate spam run on Borka but only managed 2 damage, so the Mauler walked up and ate him in my turn to make it 3 for 3 at the end of day 1 and a place in the top 8.

Match 4: Grissel vs eMakeda
This game was over in the second turn, as I got caught out by the sheer speed that eMakeda could give her beasts on an assassination run on her feat turn. The Bronzeback was a 1/4" within range to charge Mulg, and even though he survived he had lost both his mind and spirit branches so was next to useless to prevent the Gladiator (who was also only just within 1/2" to Grissel and hit requiring 9's every single time as I left her 2 fury for transfers just in case) but phenomenal damage rolls meant I had to ditch every attack and even passing one tough roll wasn't enough to save Grissel.

Match 5: Grissel vs eAsphyxious
I was drawn in the 5th round to play my best friend who had travelled with me to the UK Masters and this game turned into a real grinder. It was Destruction, and between us the only models left going into the final turn was Grissel, 2 Champions (closing in on the last pillar) and a Stone Scribe Chronicler on my side, plus eAsphyxious on his side. Grissel had no choice but to go for the crit slam to try to keep eAsphyxious away from my last remaining pillar for one more turn but even with three boosted attack rolls I couldn't even manage a hit requiring 9's, let alone a crit. In his turn he finished off Grissel.

Match 6: Borka vs pSeverius
This match turned into a grinder of a melee brawl (Borka's specialty) with several fascinating contests all over the battlefield. A repenter and minimum flameguard cleansers unit vs max Kriel Warriors, max zealots and UA vs max Fennblades, Vanquisher and Templar and Guardian vs Horthol and 5 Long Riders and the Mauler. The Mauler at one point had been reduced to 8 wounds, but ended the watch with only 2 damage boxes filled in as he regenerated and snacked his way back towards full health. The Templar with Defender's Ward was a nightmare, as my Borka list isn't made to take on high ARM so all I could do was continually throw men in the way and rely on tough rolls to keep it busy. Severius eventually died to Fennblades via vengeance after Ashes to Ashes killed only one of the five engaging him.