Six players showed up for this month's Runewars Tournament at Gameology, which was fantastic! Faction breakdown:

Uthuk Y'llan: 1 player
Daqan Lords: 2 players
Waiqar the Undying: 3 players

My army, 200 points total:

Reanimate Archers [45] 3x2
Shield Wall [5]
Raven-Standard Bearer [3]
Close Quarters Targeting [3]
Total Unit Cost: 56

Reanimates [35] 3x2
Ankaur Maro (I) [20]
Marching Drummer [2]
Total Unit Cost: 57

Reanimates [35] 3x2
File Leader [6]
Raven-Standard Bearer [3]
Aggressive Drummer [5]
Total Unit Cost: 49

Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1
Rank Discipline [4]
Total Unit Cost: 19

Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1
Rank Discipline [4]
Total Unit Cost: 19

I got matched up against another Waiqar player, which makes sense just by probability. Bill is relatively new to the game, and I had shown him a thing or two about Ankaur Maro unit, so that's what he brought...along with a forest!

Ankaur Maro [40] 1x1
Fortunas Dice [6]
Violent Forces [6]
Total Unit Cost: 52

Aymhelin Scions [62] 3x2
Shield Wall [5]
Total Unit Cost: 67

Carrion Lancers [27] 2x1
Rank Discipline [4]
Total Unit Cost: 31

Death Knights [24] 2x1
Rank Discipline [4]
Total Unit Cost: 28

Death Knights [24] 2x1
Total Unit Cost: 24

Something must be off here, because this is 202, points. Hmm... Anyway. We were playing Unprepared and Bounty. Both of us elected our Shield Wall units as the bounty. I was player one, so I put him along the unprepared edge [NOTE: According to tournament rules, 1st player by default chooses the Objective card, meaning 2nd player chooses the red or blue deployment. Never knew that, but I'll remember that in the future]. Here was setup:

As I looked at the field, I realized that I really wouldn't have minded the narrow edge, because I needed time to build up trays. I shouldn't have rotated my Archers. But I really shouldn't have tried to get Ankaur Maro's unit engaged...

Above is a picture of the end of round 2, and enemy Ankaur Maro juuuust barely had line of site to the back corner of my Maro unit. Next round, he took off the whole back rank in one attack. I believe the Scions managed to kill my Maro figure next round with a ranged attack. Of all my units, Maro's Reanimates are the least effective to be out front. And that basically cost me the game. Neither of us were able to get each other's bounty unit, and my Archers weren't in position to kill his Maro for some juicy 52 points. Bummer.

But cool highlight this match: my fighting Reanimates on the right eventually engaged the Death Knights in front of them with a turning charge (just barely reached), and then did a melee attack at initiative 3 the following round thanks to Raven Standard Bearer. Bill knew his Death Knights were going to die, so he dialed in a charge with his Scions. Because we had the melee attack revealed, we got to take out a tray before they got to do their roll. Two attacks in one turn is always a good thing!

It ended up a 7-4 victory for him. Gotta keep my Maro back. I also should have used the deployment to my advantage to stick my Archers way out front. Lessons learned.

Round 2 I was up against Dave, a new player that Bill brought with him.

Lord Hawthorne [34] 1x1
Shield of Margath [6]
Might of Daqan [4]
Total Unit Cost: 44

Oathsworn Cavalry [34] 2x2
Shield Wall [5]
Rank Discipline [4]
Total Unit Cost: 43

Oathsworn Cavalry [34] 2x2
Total Unit Cost: 34

Heavy Crossbowmen [27] 3x1
Rank Discipline [4]
Total Unit Cost: 31

Heavy Crossbowmen [27] 3x1
Rank Discipline [4]
Total Unit Cost: 31

Rune Golems [17] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 17

Both at 200 points, we rolled for it, and Dave took player 1. The Deployment was Long Canyon and Supply Raid. Long Canyon...was a tough one for Dave's army. He had his Oathsworn configured as 4x1's, and if I understand the FAQ and tournament rules correctly, you decide before game setup whether or not to use Lessons of Seragart. That means he'd have to decide before the TO chose the deployment and the objective for that round. He did his best with what was given to him, and here's how setup ended up.

Notice how I have Ankaur Maro safely in the back. ? Now, you are probably wondering what those two siege units are doing on either end of the field. Well, we both put supplies out behind our enemies to make some units hang back and fetch them. I put one directly in front of his Oathsworn, knowing they would pick it up and deliver it to my Reanimates...shoot! I totally forgot to count those points. Ah well. Moving forward!

So deployment was basically exactly how I wanted, funneling him into the maw that is my File Leader Reanimates. I believe this next picture is the end of round 3.

The Oathsworn charged in, but we managed to take out 2 trays before they could attack, thanks to File Leader. Next round the Reanimates finish off the Oathsworn, and my red worm does a 1-turn towards the next unit of cavalry to get out of range of the Crossbowmen. I wasn't sure what to do with this guy. Honestly, he just got in the way of my Reanimates. That Carrion Lancer was my only casualty, and all I was able to destroy of his was his two Oathsworn Cavalry units. My Reanimate Archers got scared when Hawthorne came through the fortification and then the Crumbling Wall to get a flank, but time was short, and we shouldn't have turned towards him. Should have pressed the attack on the Crossbowmen.

Here's the end of the game:

He got 79 points, I got 177, for an 8-3 victory, though we had thought it was 7-4 (99 to 157) because I forgot we would have picked up those supplies. I should have put more supplies in front. That's an interesting thought.

Prizes were given out randomly as per the game kit rules, and I wasn't selected. Sadness. But Jesse gave me his Thu'Uk Tar and Gorgemaw card because he won't be getting any Uthuk Y'llan. Thanks Jesse! Also, Jason is parting ways with Waiqar, partly because our area is already saturated with skeletons, so he let us pick over all his stuff to swell our ranks. Who's excited to see two 12-tray Reanimates take the field?! ? Be ready! Thank you Jason! Don't know how I could ever repay you!

It was a good tournament. I just need to play more games, so I'm excited that Gameology is moving to a new, bigger location within the month, so we're going to have an established Friday night wargaming. So excited for regular Runewars games!

Thank you for the excellent report!

So prizes were random, but did you get a final score for all players? You got 12, but where did you fall out in the ranks?

I hate forgetting to add tournament points! That's the worst! I don't know how to fix that problem, though, other than playing more games. But you add tournament nerves to the mix and it's so easy to forget the extra points when adding up the score at the end. Cost me a win one time and I still kick myself for it. It feels bad to miss a trigger, but when you play the game right but just have a scoring error, that's not how you want it to go down.

Uthuk: 20

Waiqar: 17

Waiqar: 12 (me)

Waiqar: 11

Daqan: 4

Daqan: 2

The Daqan Lords are having a hard time standing up to the forces of evil, but I hope they don't give up!

Edit: it's pretty easy to see who had 2W, who had 2L, and who had 1W-1L.

Looking at the last picture from the second game you can see a stun token behind my Reanimates that had marched straight three. It was supposed to be a turning charge, speed 2. I didn't measure it, until now, but I just realized that the stun token he gave us with a morale test protected his Crossbowmen because the turn 2 would have connected. That stun saved him between 8 and 27 points, depending on if I destroyed 1 tray or 2. Not bad!