Tournament Round-Up 38: Banshees in Banbury!

My Lady Harrow’s Mournflight hit the tournament scene!

Welcome to another tournament round-up! This time I’m back at Warhammer Banbury…in Banbury. I had been their last year and won with Ironskull’s Boyz. I had such an amazing experience last year so I had been looking forward to the tournament for a while. This time I was using Lady Harrow’s Mournflight. I had only 3 days of practice with them beforehand so it was going to be tight.

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Decklist

Playstyle: Flex (Aggro, Control and Hold Objectives)

Deck link

This is my Lady Harrow’s Mournflight deck: Lady Harrow’s Flex-Flight. A true flex deck designed around how I play. I had been trying to make a true flex deck for a while but it’s really hard to do in Beastgrave and not very optimal anymore. The Mournflight can achieve it though thanks to their amazing objectives, especially end phase objectives, as well as their formidable stats partly due to high movement and defence at 2 dodge each. It also requires a lot of game and player knowledge which I have in droves allowing me to more accurately predict what my opponent is going to do and how to counter them.

Objective wise I have fairly common choices. Fleeting Memories is really easy due to the Mournflight’s high movement although it requires careful objective hex placement on deployment (don’t place feature tokens more than 2 hexes apart in your territory). One Will which is super easy Swift Capture (that I’m running too). Inescapable Hunger requires you to always pick a board with blocked hexes if placing boards first. Cover Ground is pretty easy but card dependent. Temporary Victory is the risky one. 4 models with no in-faction friendly pushes means it requires a lot of long setup but that 2 glory is a sweet payoff. Ghostly Tournament is super easy for 2 glory as it needs any 2 fighters wounded. Nexus of Terror is 2 glory for holding more objectives than your opponent. Fired Up is easy due to the safely guaranteed inspire mechanic. Path to Victory is risky as the only objective requiring to kill an opponent but it’s a great payoff. Great Gains is a pure combo card but I can reliably score it. Dominion of Death is the icing on the cake. As someone who played Superior Tactician for almost 2 years straight, this is just so easy for me to use. Plus go first in the last round of a game and you pretty much always score it, that reliable 3 glory swing is huge.

For gambits I have Soaring Spite and Spectral Wings. Mournflight already have high movement characteristics but those cards help me score Cover Ground, inspire easily and help me reach any objective/enemy fighter I want. Dissipate is a super strong defensive card by allowing me to gain an incredibly strong innate dodge as well as blocking reaction windows for cards like Potion of Rage. Frightful Aspect and Distraction are my double Distractions, Call of the Grave is my super Distraction and messes up a lot of push cards as I can push a enemy fighter 2 hexes. You can do interesting pushes as you can pick any friendly fighter as the target to push towards. Restless Prize is a no-brainer. Two Steps Forward helps with hold objectives and quickly scoring Temporary Victory. Echoing Spite helps boost my aggro efficiency for when I need that crucial successful attack. Chilling Scream is amazing. No Time but you can still play cards. So strong and allows you to shut down your opponent in a final power step while you play all your power cards with impunity.

Upgrades are more aggro focussed with Great Strength, Sting of the Ur-Grub and Tome of Offerings. Swooping Dash helps me have even MOAR mobility. Survival Instincts is free guard which is amazing on 2 defence fighters. Debilitating Aura is taken over Spectral Armour. You gain more from de-buffing your opponent over increasing your defence characteristic by 1. Plus Debilitating Aura effects anyone you’re adjacent to, very abusable. Great Fortitude and Veil of Grief allow (once inspired) all my fighters to be 4 wounds or make the Anguished One Inspired and Lady Harrow 5 wounds. Quickening Greaves is crucial to my hold objective play while the Slumbering Key acts as extra end-of-game glory simply by being alive.

Board Information

Haunted Combat Key:

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Tournament Day
It was a bright Saturday morning in Banbury. I was back again with my Lady Harrow’s Flex-Flight this time for 5 rounds of best of 1. Unfortunately there were 11 of us which meant someone would be getting a bye.

Round 1
I got the bye. It was tough. The bye was a strong but stoic opponent yet I ended up with a round 1 win at +7 glory. I spent most of the time chatting to the store manager Simon. He’s one of the best Games Workshop store managers I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. It’s always a joy chatting to him and seeing his love for the hobby.

Round 2

I was up against Rich and his Zarbag’s Gitz. We had played last year and it was a close game then too. Rich is a good player and I’m always wary of going into Gitz so I knew this would be tough. Rich won boards and placed Wyrmgrave so I set the Shrine of the Silent People wide.

Round 1 was very close. I managed to get ahead with a sneaky Fleeting Memories and 2 fighters wounded (via Distraction and Frightful Aspect) for Ghostly Torment. Still Rich took the lead via Mad Scurry and Fired Up slightly so I was a bit on the back foot.

Winning priority I went first and charged through a blocked hex onto objective 3, killing a Git with Lady Harrow and scoring Temporary Victory, Swift Capture and Inescapable Hunger. Lady Harrow managed to survive and the Anguished One Inspired killed Snirk with a single crit. This helped me score Path to Victory, Fired Up and Great Gains.

For the final round I won priority and took it. I went first and attacked using Lady Harrow and Tome of Offerings. She killed a Grot and scored me Swift Capture. She then died but no one else was able to get kills as our dice turned on each other. Although as I had gone first I had scored Dominion of Death and ended up winning 16/12. It was a really close game but turned in round 2 via my Surge boost.

Round 3

Next up was Jim and his Grymwatch. This was another matchup I was dreading. Everyone in London stopped playing Grymwatch so I had little practice against them, especially with the Mournflight. Winning boards I set the Soul Refractor while Jim placed the Shrine of the Silent People in Diagonal Configuration.

Round 1 started off fairly neutral. I moved up to setup my Temporary Victory buy Jim disrupted it with charging the Royal Butcher in and then playing Confusion to swap him onto objective 5. I charged through and killed him with the the Anguished One but he had already scored Swift Capture and In the Name of the King off of it. By the time the end phase hit Jim scored Opening Gambit, Combination Strike and Supremacy. An almost 10 glory swing in round 1 with only 1 objective I had a chance of stopping.

Round 2 faired slightly better. I went first and scored Temporary Victory then Inescapable Hunger but my all my attacks missed. Jim was able to kill more of my Mournflight but the glory difference was a lot closer now thanks to Fired Up, Great Gains and Ghostly Torment.

Round 3 had me go second. The Grymwatch continued to score their Surges like Calculated Risk and Scrum. I continued to miss attacks and thus my Tome of Offerings didn’t trigger. By the end of the game I had lost 14/19. Still super close but was dealt a huge blow by that round 1 draw of objectives. Jim wasn’t even running Temporary Victory! Really good play from him but there was sadly nothing I could have done to turn things around outside of dice.

Round 4

Salty was my 4th opponent with his Ironsoul’s Condemnors. It was a Dreadfane showdown! He won boards and placed the Ruptured Seal whereas I set the Soul Refractor in wide configuration.

I started off by scoring Fleeting Memories. After Salty’s activation of charging Lady Harrow and missing, I moved onto objective 5 and scored 1 will. I then moved onto objective 1 and scored Temporary Victory. Distraction pushed me off then Salty charged onto the same objective and did 1 damage with his shield bash but drove the Screaming Maiden away to score Get Thee Hence. I then gave the Anguished One Great Strength and charged through Tavian while rolling a single crit. He took 3 damage and was driven back into death via a lethal hex. Brodus moved up and I scored Path to Victory, Fired Up and Nexus of Terror.

Round 2 had me tank a charge from the BROdus thanks to my own crits and I scored Inescapable Hunger to drag him down via mobs of Banshees. Ironsoul killed Lady Harrow but then she was killed by the Anguished One inspired with Great Strength. Salty rolled a crit to my single fury but I stopped crits now so she died.

Round 3 was just moving to score Swift Capture then Dominion of Death and Great Gains. It ended 19/10 to me. Salty scored a lot of glory and killed 2 Banshees but I just scored too much too early for the Condemnors to deal with.

Round 5

Finally I was up against Jimmy and his Skaeth’s Wild Hunt. I knew he was likely to be pure aggro so I was ready. Winning boards, Jimmy went and placed the Abandoned Lair first. This was perfect and I was very relieved. I chose the Molten Shardpit and set it in diagonal configuration with a lethal hex to ensure that there was only 1 safe hex to move through.

I let Jimmy go first and he just moved up. I then moved into 2 objectives to score Fleeting Memories. Jimmy continued to move up. I moved onto my next objective then drew a card. After Jimmy’s last activation I played Restless Prize to push objective 2 closer then Soaring Spite. I then moved Lady Harrow 8 hexes through Sheoch and onto objective 2 which scored me Swift Capture, One Will and Temporary Victory. In the end phase I scored Fired Up, Nexus of Terror and Great Gains.

Round 2 had me go first. Lady Harrow was inspired with Tome of Offerings, Debilitating Aura and Survival Instincts. She attacked and immediately killed Sheoch. Jimmy then began focusing on Lady Harrow but my upgrades made her too difficult to kill easily. I made things worse by adding Great Fortitude after she was wounded by a charging Karthaen. Skeath broke off and charged Widow Caitha on objective 3, killing her with 2 crits via his spear. However now he was in range I played Spectral Wings and charged the Anguished One through a blocked hex into Skaeth, nearly killing him thanks to lethal hexes and scoring Inescapable Hunger.

Round 3 devolved into a scrum. Skaeth eventually managed to kill the Anguished One but by the time he had, the Kurnithi was quickly killed by a zooming Lady Harrow. In the end phase I managed to score Ghostly Torment, Dominion of Death and the Slumbering Key to put me on a 15/6 win. It was a tough game but thanks to me getting to align boards, it was very easy for me to shut down Jimmy’s aggro as he had to dump cards like Keep Chopping etc.

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The Results

I had thought I was out of the running to win until I found out Jimmy had beaten Jim 36/17! It meant it was now super close between me and Jim as it would come down to glory differentials. In the end Jim came…second! I had edged ahead by 2 glory!

It was super tough but once again I had reclaimed my top spot in Warhammer Banbury again like last year in ironically the same way: thanks to tie-breakers. As last year Warhammer Banbury remains a shining star for gaming and Warhammer. Really great and growing Underworlds community with an amazing store manager too. I highly recommend visiting if you’re ever in the area once traveling outside in public is safe again. Remember you can check out Warhammer Banbury at their Facebook page here.

As for the deck it worked perfectly, too well almost, especially with my limited practice time. After proving my deck concept was tournament viable I was semi-confident in taking it to the January Warhammer World Grand Clash the week later. That put me on 4 days of practice over 3 weeks, the least prepared time I’ve ever had for a Grand Clash. How did I do? Well you’ll find out soon enough. Sometimes you don’t even need to roll crits to win.