And a good thing too given the briefness of the game!
It was Ben's OnG vs my Dragon list in last post. Only change was putting flame banner on the spears (better place for it!).
His list looked like this:
Bus of Orc boyz with stubborn crown warboss, warded up BSB, lvl4 with scroll
24ish Savage Orc big 'uns with lvl1 with shruken head
5 spider riders
2 solo gobbo wolf riders-one with charmed shield and 1 with terror mask
6 trolls
1 solo troll
unit of 2 chariots
1 rock lobba
1 doom diver
2 manglers
1 big spider thingie (Ronald Reagan)
we rolled up Blood or Glory with was a good mission for me (7 vs 5), however that meant getting to the bus (which spent the entire game in a building)
I deployed reasonably defensively. Past experience vs OnG has shown that you have to deal with all the chaff first (something my army is rather good at) and THEN worry about the Trolls and Savage Orcs! My only real concern was 1 mangler that was outside of archer range and had a forested journey towards my lines. It was on my eagle'd side, but I totally fluffed dealing with the mangler.
Turn 1:
OnG go first and move chariots up to threat range. Manglers do their thing and spider riders move to threaten eagle. Ronald Reagan rocks up my right flank to threaten my archers. All looking reasonably sinister. Then the Magic phase. Ben first rolls up a 6 dice monkey on Foot of Gork. Not a HUGE roll (but enough to cast) so I chuck my 6 dice at it....fail to dispel due to lots of 1's. Not too bad says I due to scatter....2 DIRECT HITS later on both my Wlion units = both down to front rank only (so 10 and 7). Effectively removing my entire combat arm turn 1. TO add insult he then takes a wound off my lvl2. Waaagh-tillery opens up and does 3 wounds to my dragon.
So my turn 1: Not much really to do. I move back, reform wlions into "combat units" and swing my Dragon round to my right flank to counter Ronald Reagan. I make a huge mistake (still a little shell shocked I guess) and charge my eagle into spider riders instead of sitting back to catch the mangler. My Magic consists of fireball attempts at his chariots drawing out his scroll with a 3d6 fire ball-leaving his dice to stop the ruby ring. My shooting phase results in a dead mangler which was good. In combat my eagle dies easily (i4 poison silly me).
Turn 2:
Stuff happens. Nothing of note that I can remember. Artillery misses, Ronald Reagan and Dragon sit 21 inches away (with Ronald 19 inches from archers). I used my scroll to stop something.
Turn 3:
The terror mask decides to try his luck into my big archers (that were now minus BSB who had joined spears to avoid Ronald Reagan). Archers hold with cause 1 wound with S&S. The spider riders move to set up a mangler over run (as I should have guessed they would...still annoyed as wasteful use of eagle!) Magic consists of killing my lvl2...2 sniper spells and 1 wound left :(. Waagh-tillery fails to do anything (DDiver misfires and Rlobba misses). In combat 2 archers die, but I hold.
My turn 3: well, minus a bit of stuff. I charge dragon into flank of terror guy-dead. Wlions charge and kill all the spiders easily. Shooting is once again effective (only BSB and 10 archers). I kill 1 chariot and remaining one fails panic.
Turn 4:
Already! Ronald Reagon tries a max range charge on the archers...rolls 6, 5, 5 and fails PHEW! S&S does nothing sadly. Mangler, now underrated moves up to squish some whitelions who have no where to escape...if only manglers were like fanatics as I was really close to some forests... This S'orcs decide they want some action....but only if protected by a solo troll who is pushed out in front to act as a speed bump if my spears where feeling rather suicidal. The solo chariot rallies. No combat this turn. Shooting resulted in another fail (scatter off board). Magic was good for me. Foot scattered off dragon, then off spears, then I got to place it on the Savage'orcs and only scatter 1 inch-killing 8 from 12 hits which is not bad.
My turn 4-well there was "Eagle vs Shark" and there was "Shark vs Giant Octopus" and "Godzilla vs Giant insect thingie" and now there was Ronald Reagan vs Dragon as my Prince, surprised to have lasted so long, charges in! I then had to make a decision about how I was going to deal with the Savage Orcs. I drew my archers and spears back-BSB rejoined the big archers. MY unit of 7 Whitelions then pushed forward to take the charge. My gamble was that he couldnt kill 7 wlions, then hold on re-roll ld 8 and spears come smashing into the flank...it was the only thing I had to stop them!
Once again looking back I had an even better option-reform into conga line and do the same thing. Guess my inner "be a dick" doesn't exist in friendly games! Of course this all relied on 23 s3 and 3 s5 shots being able to kill a troll-which they did! In combat the Prince casually did 3 wounds then the i4 poison thing got me again and the dragon fell. Princes uber armour combo bounced off 6 stomps. However I was still up in CR (3 wounds + charge vs 3 wounds) so the combat continued!
Turn 5:
Or otherwise known as "how to lose 800+ VPs in 1 turn" Mangler rolls heaps and smashes into whitelions...doing 12 wounds and then runs off board. Savage Orcs charge Wlions and slaughter them (I do 5 wounds in return) and over run out of spear LoS. Here once again I would like to point out how not throwing away the eagle turn 1 would have netted me the Savage Orcs. See-the eagle would have jumped on the mangler (saving me 10 wlions). These wlions would have moved up BEHIND the front wlions to catch the over run allowing spears to flank.....oh well. waaghtillery kills 6 archers from small unit. Prince does 2 wounds to Ronald Reagan and takes none in return (another 6 stomps too).
My turn involves Spears reforming to look at the Savage orcs and moving the 4 archers to force awkward overrun. Shooting does stuff. Another wound to Ronald Reagan for none in return.
Turn 6:
The rock lobba misfires giving me the points. My Prince slays the spider. In my turn he does what's called "getting the hell out of there" back to my lines. The Savage orcs reform to face my spears instead of taking the bait. Mangler moves off the board again. IN my turn I charge the spears in hoping to out CR the Savage orcs and break them. I win combat by 1 (static CR FTW), but the savage orcs hold to end the game.
So a win for the Orcs, but they didn't break me, so a moral victory to the elves!
After thoughts:
Other than hitting myself for a wasteful use of my eagle I think I played rather well. flaming banner on the spears meant the trolls stayed out of harms way all game-so a great deterrent. Dragon surviving til turn 4 was awesome. Dying in combat not so, but once again in combat with something the Prince could handle with no other threats around. This is looking like a key thing for the dragon. All the dragon is, is a very expensive Prince delivery system that causes terror and flies. Could I down grade to the dumb dragon? maybe, but would not be as cool...though 70 points for 2nd eagle and 20 points of something could be very useful!
I lost game turn 1 when foot got 2 direct hits on my combat arm. Nothing I could have done except use my scroll. Don't really know why I didn't...Getting the bus out of the building, even with my 2 combat units at full effectiveness would have been very, very hard anyway, so I doubt I would have broken the Orc army.
Anyways- next Wednesday the list rocks it again vs another army...let's see the dragon survive to turn 5!
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Friday, 23 March 2012
Week Round Up
What a week! The Rumour mill seems to have got everything wrong....new paints instead of Empire...my artillery line survives!
I've also written myself a fun High Elf list that I've had one game with so far and will be using again this weekend.
The list:
Prince: dragon (the "normal" one), GW, Armour of Caledor, Vambraces of Defence, Other Trickster's shard
lvl2: (fire) scroll, ruby ring
BSB: GW, Dragon armour, reavor bow
30 Spears: FC
15 Archers: M, SB-flame
10 Archers:M
27 White Lions: FC-Iron Curse Icon
24 White Lions: FC-Amulet of light
Eagle
Probably not the tightest of lists. I could move flame banner to the spears and drop the banner for a 16th archer for instance. there are 1400+ points tied up in the dragon and the white lion units, so the list preserves points very nicely. Only 1 true chaff unit, however archers, reavor bow and the missile battery are all there to hopefully clean out opposing chaff quickly allowing my raw killing power to come into its own.
Does it have tournament potential?
Possibly. However I would be more comfortable if THERE WERE FENCES ON THE TABLES (pet peeve....speaking as a cannon loving Empire player). Fences are the gift of life for monsters in 8th because the act as cannon ball (and WLC shot) catchers. Their absence from tournament tables is probably one of practicality (they do get in the way when moving infantry), however I think it is more of a 7th hang over when they were a real pain in the arse due to slowing movement-meaning you had to be super anal as to exactly where on the board they were. I suspect that more fences on tournament tables would see a return of monsters....that and a more rigerous policing by players of cannon shooting rules (ie LOS to the spot shooting at, not just the target. If can't see the point = have to start the shot from the closest point of the target's base, or pick a not so favourable spot to shoot at).
I had an interesting game vs James Millington on Wednesday. He had a Skaven gunline complete with 15 Jezzils in a folding fortress, 2 ratling guns, warp fire thrower, poison wind mortar attached to globidairs, WLC, 2 hamster wheels, and a bell. My dragon survived until turn 2! It was finally killed by 2xd6 s10 hamster wheel warplightning wounds, the Prince surviving with a lucky escape route (charge WLC, overrun off the board) and then later survived another 3 s10 warplightning wounds thanks to his 4+ ward. My lvl2 magic missile battery was awesome-single handidly taking out all the jezzils over 2 magic phases. The whitelions cleaned up the rest of the points. A good test run vs one of the High Elves' toughest match ups...helped along with some very favourable dice rolling.
Next game is vs either WoC, lizards or Orcs-will post synopis report with some photos. All of them present different challenges, but the dragon will over come!
I've also written myself a fun High Elf list that I've had one game with so far and will be using again this weekend.
The list:
Prince: dragon (the "normal" one), GW, Armour of Caledor, Vambraces of Defence, Other Trickster's shard
lvl2: (fire) scroll, ruby ring
BSB: GW, Dragon armour, reavor bow
30 Spears: FC
15 Archers: M, SB-flame
10 Archers:M
27 White Lions: FC-Iron Curse Icon
24 White Lions: FC-Amulet of light
Eagle
Probably not the tightest of lists. I could move flame banner to the spears and drop the banner for a 16th archer for instance. there are 1400+ points tied up in the dragon and the white lion units, so the list preserves points very nicely. Only 1 true chaff unit, however archers, reavor bow and the missile battery are all there to hopefully clean out opposing chaff quickly allowing my raw killing power to come into its own.
Does it have tournament potential?
Possibly. However I would be more comfortable if THERE WERE FENCES ON THE TABLES (pet peeve....speaking as a cannon loving Empire player). Fences are the gift of life for monsters in 8th because the act as cannon ball (and WLC shot) catchers. Their absence from tournament tables is probably one of practicality (they do get in the way when moving infantry), however I think it is more of a 7th hang over when they were a real pain in the arse due to slowing movement-meaning you had to be super anal as to exactly where on the board they were. I suspect that more fences on tournament tables would see a return of monsters....that and a more rigerous policing by players of cannon shooting rules (ie LOS to the spot shooting at, not just the target. If can't see the point = have to start the shot from the closest point of the target's base, or pick a not so favourable spot to shoot at).
I had an interesting game vs James Millington on Wednesday. He had a Skaven gunline complete with 15 Jezzils in a folding fortress, 2 ratling guns, warp fire thrower, poison wind mortar attached to globidairs, WLC, 2 hamster wheels, and a bell. My dragon survived until turn 2! It was finally killed by 2xd6 s10 hamster wheel warplightning wounds, the Prince surviving with a lucky escape route (charge WLC, overrun off the board) and then later survived another 3 s10 warplightning wounds thanks to his 4+ ward. My lvl2 magic missile battery was awesome-single handidly taking out all the jezzils over 2 magic phases. The whitelions cleaned up the rest of the points. A good test run vs one of the High Elves' toughest match ups...helped along with some very favourable dice rolling.
Next game is vs either WoC, lizards or Orcs-will post synopis report with some photos. All of them present different challenges, but the dragon will over come!
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Thinks I suspect will happen to the Empire in April
Sup all,
I figured that I should share my thoughts on what I suspect will happen to the Empire when the new book is supposed to come out.
Artillery:
The big one. Quick check in the BRB and only the cannon has BRB'ed stats meaning the rocket battery, mortar and hellbaster are candidates for change. I can see mortars just becoming stone throwers with AP and a crap(er) misfire chart. Rocket batteries are what concern me the most (a connoisseur of killing stuff with them I have become). They are already rare and have benefited fantastically from the new template rules and engineer errata. If they lose the large template then they need to become more accurate/stay at s5 (with possible s10 center hole???). There needs to be SOMETHING that makes them better than a mortar, especially if mortars and cannons move into the rare slot (to bring in line with the other 8th books). The Hellblaster just needs something to make it worth takin. BS3 and 3 changes to explode a turn is not a good look.
I suspect the new book might follow the colleges more closely either by special character spam (hello Space Marine codex) or just via user choice (ie take an engineer and can get "x"). Hopefully the latter, which brings me to my next prediction...Potential for "Nuln engineer" bonuses to artillery (here's hoping!).
Waralter might no longer be an option.
Biggie I know, but if there is only supposed to be one, and with GW's special character fetish, then this is a no brainer for me. Want the war alter? Great-take the Grand Theogonist...with his current rules = horrible. Give him an armour save instead of regen and might be onto something. However the optimist and capitalist inside of me knows that this is a silly ways to increase sales = NEW PLASTIC KIT that duos as a warwagon. My big hope is that it is of the same size as the furnace/bell kit and functions in a similar way (can join a unit of flagellants *drool*).
Stank:
Errata gave it t10-expect this to stay. Plastic kit teases with weapon options for the engineer...character mount anyone (to quote the Castle..."tell 'em he's dreaming")
Something that can be a character mount and a rare choice:
Everybook so far has had it. Obvious choice-stank. Cooler choice = warwagon.
Knights:
This one is causing lots of debate on the Empire forum. I'm seeing an emphasis on the orders to create differences. Currently they are really good at holding their points and acting as fantastic clean up unit...I want to see a "hammer unit" sticker back on these guys. CoCommand/Somight combo on BSB will be a thing of the past, so maybe GTM will get an awesome boost?? Blazing Sun GTM = knights do "X", Knights Panther GTM = they do "Y". Hoping for a new plastic kit (as my knights look horrible and want an excuse to replace them with something cool and with a better paint job!). Only thing I really want is i4.
Demi griffon knights just sound super lame and Forge World has already released this, so hopefully not.
Warrior Priests lose extra dispel dice
This is a given since every new book has had a fundamental change to dice generation (ie a focus on Power dice). Warrior Priests still need something magic wise-maybe they can channel and keep their bound spells. I'm expecting the dice generation thing to be something that is a huge kit, super vulnerable to everything and a waste of space. Also, maybe a focus on the different religions...I see lots of potential there and a way to keep the waralter as a common lord choice.
State Troops:
Well, the mainstay of the Empire. Currently Halberds are good at killing stuff and Swords are great at not dying...leaving Spears to do not much. I keep hearing about potential point drops...maybe. Great Swords definitely need it...however FPA and GW + stubborn on ld8 is still rather good...just not mathematically as good as the same amount of points spent on the slightly less armoured riff raff. The detachment rule still works fine...however I do find myself using it to bring super cheap chaff rather than troop blocks to counter charge. If state troops get cheaper and detachments count towards core, then maybe there will be a return to TVI tactics...here's hoping.
Free company/archers:
They get their own musing because they were the cop out for the current book. They represent everything that gives the Empire army character (witch hunters etc) without actually having to do it. Maybe a unit upgrade champ witchhunter hero would be very cool here. I would seriously consider using it (and would definitely buy the model!). They are my chaff and hopefully will continue to be so...unless we get solo hunting dogs...
Flagellants:
BRING BACK t4 and move to special. Otherwise keep as is, unless the waralter becomes a good guy furnace in which case let it join flagellants for awesomeness. Would mean they cannot hold the watchtower though...
Magic Items:
Runefang, Mace of Helstrum, VHS (more expensive sad face), Armour of Tarnus, griffon banner are my picks to stay. Everything else has an equivalent in the BRB, or is a little meh (as in not very "8th"). New items will probably be expensive and not that useful.
So that is my musing. Plan is to see all the awesome new kits and spend far too much money on them. Having painted my High Elves I now want to desperately go back and repaint my empire stuff...but time and money are not on my side! Oh well-hopefully new knights, plastic waralter/warwagon with useful bits and a big kit that is useful in the game competitively.
I figured that I should share my thoughts on what I suspect will happen to the Empire when the new book is supposed to come out.
Artillery:
The big one. Quick check in the BRB and only the cannon has BRB'ed stats meaning the rocket battery, mortar and hellbaster are candidates for change. I can see mortars just becoming stone throwers with AP and a crap(er) misfire chart. Rocket batteries are what concern me the most (a connoisseur of killing stuff with them I have become). They are already rare and have benefited fantastically from the new template rules and engineer errata. If they lose the large template then they need to become more accurate/stay at s5 (with possible s10 center hole???). There needs to be SOMETHING that makes them better than a mortar, especially if mortars and cannons move into the rare slot (to bring in line with the other 8th books). The Hellblaster just needs something to make it worth takin. BS3 and 3 changes to explode a turn is not a good look.
I suspect the new book might follow the colleges more closely either by special character spam (hello Space Marine codex) or just via user choice (ie take an engineer and can get "x"). Hopefully the latter, which brings me to my next prediction...Potential for "Nuln engineer" bonuses to artillery (here's hoping!).
Waralter might no longer be an option.
Biggie I know, but if there is only supposed to be one, and with GW's special character fetish, then this is a no brainer for me. Want the war alter? Great-take the Grand Theogonist...with his current rules = horrible. Give him an armour save instead of regen and might be onto something. However the optimist and capitalist inside of me knows that this is a silly ways to increase sales = NEW PLASTIC KIT that duos as a warwagon. My big hope is that it is of the same size as the furnace/bell kit and functions in a similar way (can join a unit of flagellants *drool*).
Stank:
Errata gave it t10-expect this to stay. Plastic kit teases with weapon options for the engineer...character mount anyone (to quote the Castle..."tell 'em he's dreaming")
Something that can be a character mount and a rare choice:
Everybook so far has had it. Obvious choice-stank. Cooler choice = warwagon.
Knights:
This one is causing lots of debate on the Empire forum. I'm seeing an emphasis on the orders to create differences. Currently they are really good at holding their points and acting as fantastic clean up unit...I want to see a "hammer unit" sticker back on these guys. CoCommand/Somight combo on BSB will be a thing of the past, so maybe GTM will get an awesome boost?? Blazing Sun GTM = knights do "X", Knights Panther GTM = they do "Y". Hoping for a new plastic kit (as my knights look horrible and want an excuse to replace them with something cool and with a better paint job!). Only thing I really want is i4.
Demi griffon knights just sound super lame and Forge World has already released this, so hopefully not.
Warrior Priests lose extra dispel dice
This is a given since every new book has had a fundamental change to dice generation (ie a focus on Power dice). Warrior Priests still need something magic wise-maybe they can channel and keep their bound spells. I'm expecting the dice generation thing to be something that is a huge kit, super vulnerable to everything and a waste of space. Also, maybe a focus on the different religions...I see lots of potential there and a way to keep the waralter as a common lord choice.
State Troops:
Well, the mainstay of the Empire. Currently Halberds are good at killing stuff and Swords are great at not dying...leaving Spears to do not much. I keep hearing about potential point drops...maybe. Great Swords definitely need it...however FPA and GW + stubborn on ld8 is still rather good...just not mathematically as good as the same amount of points spent on the slightly less armoured riff raff. The detachment rule still works fine...however I do find myself using it to bring super cheap chaff rather than troop blocks to counter charge. If state troops get cheaper and detachments count towards core, then maybe there will be a return to TVI tactics...here's hoping.
Free company/archers:
They get their own musing because they were the cop out for the current book. They represent everything that gives the Empire army character (witch hunters etc) without actually having to do it. Maybe a unit upgrade champ witchhunter hero would be very cool here. I would seriously consider using it (and would definitely buy the model!). They are my chaff and hopefully will continue to be so...unless we get solo hunting dogs...
Flagellants:
BRING BACK t4 and move to special. Otherwise keep as is, unless the waralter becomes a good guy furnace in which case let it join flagellants for awesomeness. Would mean they cannot hold the watchtower though...
Magic Items:
Runefang, Mace of Helstrum, VHS (more expensive sad face), Armour of Tarnus, griffon banner are my picks to stay. Everything else has an equivalent in the BRB, or is a little meh (as in not very "8th"). New items will probably be expensive and not that useful.
So that is my musing. Plan is to see all the awesome new kits and spend far too much money on them. Having painted my High Elves I now want to desperately go back and repaint my empire stuff...but time and money are not on my side! Oh well-hopefully new knights, plastic waralter/warwagon with useful bits and a big kit that is useful in the game competitively.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Runefang V: The endless march of Sigmar's finest
So, another fantastic Wellington tournament with lots of positive Warhammer goodness (even with lots of dwarf armies attending). As per the previous post I took an Empire army that upon reflection should not have been written on a lunch break, but oh well.
Anyway the games:
GAME 1: vs Dwarfs Simon
The draw went up, my heart sank as I saw that I had Dwarfs first up. However I was playing Simon who I had the pleasure of playing at Vermintide (and losing to grumble grumble). His army was very cool made up of mantic stuff including a cool as Celtic forge for his Anvil. Anyway it was the random deployment mission and we deployed. I got everything rather central with the Flagellants on the left flank looking at 17 rangers and the Anvil (though with an Organ aimed at them most of the way). I vanguarded my Outriders to get shots at the rangers to help thin them down. Simon is the sort of Dwarf player that is only spoken of in hushed voices in the mountain strongholds-he MOVES his army forward...crazy I know. However with no chaff it was his undoing as it meant I could position myself without much worry. My rocket battery had a field day vs his 3 blocks as they advanced under the cover of a 5++ vs shooting. Each hit (3 in total before combat) killed 12-15 dwarfs...ouch. I was also VERY LUCKY to get my Pegasus into his Grudge thrower turn 2. His cannon and my cannon were useless, but having 2 meant I eventually won the artillery battle. There was a hairy moment where my Knights punched through 1 of his blocks (GW warriors who had been reduced to 10-thank you rocket battery and final transmutation). I ran though then turned around to get a sandwich charge on his BSB unit. He promptly turns around and anvils into the Knights. Epic armour saves later (7 out of 8 4+ 2 rounds in a row...) I got the sandwich charge off. BSB had nowhere to hide so got sword of fated. His Rangers sadly fled the board having been shot 1 too many times by the outriders...but not before they killed 8 flagellants from a failed charge S&S. Had they not fled I think they could have taken out my flagellants due to them been shot so much! However at the end of the game he had 5 miners and Anvil left (on 1 wound in combat with flagellants) = 20-0 to me.
GAME 2: vs Darkelves Andy
So top of the table WOOT (along with everyone else who 20-oed first game). Game 2 was the diagonal deployment one. Andy is a Brit on holiday in NZ casually dominating the local tournament scene before heading home. He came 2nd at Fluffycon and eventually came 2nd at Runefang. I suspect he will unwittingly get an invite to Masters haha. This game can be summed up rather easily: cannons failed to kill the cauldron (despite many hits etc) and being able to outshoot me ( 2x5 shades, 2x10 xbows, 5 Driders, life taker). The only game where my Archlector died I might add (Kblowed by spears). I played poorly and got unlucky vs a very good opponent and threw away my flagellents carelessly. eventual score was 19-1 to Andy....back down the table I go.
GAME 3: vs Brets Henry
Watchtower vs Brets with 10 archers...easy eh? nope I made a HUGE mistake of not putting my flagellants into the building. Instead I relied on 5 archers and got greedy trying to take out his knight buses with the flagellants-almost succeeded too grrr to poor flagellant placing. My 5 archers had to get out the building turn 5 to avoid a charge, hoping to tie up his peg knights for 1 more round of combat...nope. oh well. Searing DOOM FTW here. Took out 1 knight bus in 2 castings-even with 1st casting vs 4++ from MR. My knights took out another of his knights with a CR run down (1+ as and s6 BSB FTW). VHS was a lifesaver as my pope got a character bus to the face and spent the entire game slapping a paladin FINALLY killing him last round of combat. (seal of destruction removed the +3 attacks, +3 strength spell!) I almost died-on 1 wound left = 6 dice healing spell = roll 6 6's...like a boss. 2 units of 4 Peg knights and some beardy long range charges took out all my support and halberd block + mages. a 13-7 loss in the end that should have been a 10-10 or even 11-9 to me taking into consideration the 600pts I lost for not holding the tower end of turn 6...DONT BE GREEDY!
GAME 4: vs WoC Sam.
Banners mission.
So what happens when you cross a flying Chaos lord with charmed shied, 2+/ 3++ with xbows and 2 cannons? I'll tell you what. turn 1 -crossbows remove charmed shield, then cannons open up and get 2 wounds on the lord (grrr bad wounding roll). Turn 2 10 xbows unleash at close range and kill Lord! Also what happens when you cross a rocket battery with Marauders? BOOM is what you get. This game I fell in love with the Rocket battery. Casually killing 3 ranks of troops, "miss" target and still kill 8 guys. Carnage is all I can say. His knights + BSB cleaned up the flagellants in 2 rounds of combat with wasn't nice, but not unexpected. The hairy moment was when my knights charged a very depleted unit, killed all but 2...only for them to hold on snake eyes! I had spent AGES arranging my archers to stop a flank charge...nope. Horde of Marauders into the flank...3rd eye mindrazor and then sad face. Thankfully he has to challenge my BSB who survived long enough for my halberds to flank charge for the victory (having successfully killed 4 remain halberd warriors...5 wounds 5 failed 5+ AS). The knights died next round, but I still got enough points out of him (and took enough banners) to get a comfortable win built on the back of some of the worst rolling I have ever seen from Sam. Dice whispering...IT WORKS :P 19-1 to me.
GAME 5: vs Skaven Dan
Final game vs Skaven. Battleline. Little did I know, but my opponent is a member of this years ETC team...which explains the "deploy in opposite corner and rely on the fact I have more shooting" tactic :P SO that's exactly what happened. I killed 2 rat darts, 1 unit of gutter runners, 1 engineer with brass orb, WLC and Plague claw (got 2 wounds through then it exploded). He killed lvl4 and xbows (13th grrr), my artillery, outriders and my archer detachments. Worst moment was my archers sucking vs rat darts and running away sigh. ETC game play for a 12-8 win to the rats. I was an interesting game though. The cautious advance is a style I want to get better at, and it was a good lesson in how it is done.
END RESULT. 54 battle points, max sports and painting = NINTH. Top 10 is a fantastic result considering I won 2 and lost 3. Had I won the watchtower as a should have, I would have placed even higher. Oh well. My goal was to come out with more points than if I had drawn every game, and I achieved that.
THOUGHTS ON LIST:
Well, didnt need the Crown of Command after all in the end :P If I had had it I might have been more willing to commit to charges-and I really think that is the key point. I was cautious with the knights because I did not want to get bogged down. When I charged they were awesome so knights are a keeper (well, until April when everything changes). BSB Somight is too many points to pair with "beard of command" (my bsb has no helmet, but has an epic beard), so will need to think hard about how to arm him-though I suspect he will get access to normal items...GW and dragonhelm for s6 1+ As!
Flagellants: Take or leave them with lore of shadow. They really need lore of light to shine.In fact I was very unimpressed with the lore of Shadow all tournament. Only spell I ever cast was miasma. I was using my dice to cast searing doom or banishment to cause actual damage on stuff. OH- in the Bret game I cast light of battle for the first time EVER. wow. I think for future games I will revert back to lore of light on lvl4 and stick with metal on the lvl1. With the Walter providing bound spells I should have a very effective magic phase...and a lvl4 that wants to cast.
Rocket battery? YES PLEASE. Best shot of the event: killing 25 clan rats at max range...scatter brought me dead center of the unit. Would I bring 2? possibly, but would need to lose something and not too sure what that would be. 1 is heinous enough 2 is just plain filthy!
Did I miss the stank? Short answer "no". Long answer "without lore of light I would take it over flagellants". However bringing back lore of light = stick with flagellants. Too much lore of metal (6 armies at Runefang) to risk a stank, and there is always the shadow threat too.
Halberds over Swords? I keep hearing "Swords are better: ws4, i4, parry etc". I keep thinking "s4 ftw" + lore of light makes most of that irrelevant. The new book might change that...and if it does expect mass conversion of my flagellant meets graveguard swordsmen to get an awesome unit...
So back to the drawing board to get a cool list for gaming on Wednesday night. The Armies of Sigmar continue to march on.
Anyway the games:
GAME 1: vs Dwarfs Simon
The draw went up, my heart sank as I saw that I had Dwarfs first up. However I was playing Simon who I had the pleasure of playing at Vermintide (and losing to grumble grumble). His army was very cool made up of mantic stuff including a cool as Celtic forge for his Anvil. Anyway it was the random deployment mission and we deployed. I got everything rather central with the Flagellants on the left flank looking at 17 rangers and the Anvil (though with an Organ aimed at them most of the way). I vanguarded my Outriders to get shots at the rangers to help thin them down. Simon is the sort of Dwarf player that is only spoken of in hushed voices in the mountain strongholds-he MOVES his army forward...crazy I know. However with no chaff it was his undoing as it meant I could position myself without much worry. My rocket battery had a field day vs his 3 blocks as they advanced under the cover of a 5++ vs shooting. Each hit (3 in total before combat) killed 12-15 dwarfs...ouch. I was also VERY LUCKY to get my Pegasus into his Grudge thrower turn 2. His cannon and my cannon were useless, but having 2 meant I eventually won the artillery battle. There was a hairy moment where my Knights punched through 1 of his blocks (GW warriors who had been reduced to 10-thank you rocket battery and final transmutation). I ran though then turned around to get a sandwich charge on his BSB unit. He promptly turns around and anvils into the Knights. Epic armour saves later (7 out of 8 4+ 2 rounds in a row...) I got the sandwich charge off. BSB had nowhere to hide so got sword of fated. His Rangers sadly fled the board having been shot 1 too many times by the outriders...but not before they killed 8 flagellants from a failed charge S&S. Had they not fled I think they could have taken out my flagellants due to them been shot so much! However at the end of the game he had 5 miners and Anvil left (on 1 wound in combat with flagellants) = 20-0 to me.
GAME 2: vs Darkelves Andy
So top of the table WOOT (along with everyone else who 20-oed first game). Game 2 was the diagonal deployment one. Andy is a Brit on holiday in NZ casually dominating the local tournament scene before heading home. He came 2nd at Fluffycon and eventually came 2nd at Runefang. I suspect he will unwittingly get an invite to Masters haha. This game can be summed up rather easily: cannons failed to kill the cauldron (despite many hits etc) and being able to outshoot me ( 2x5 shades, 2x10 xbows, 5 Driders, life taker). The only game where my Archlector died I might add (Kblowed by spears). I played poorly and got unlucky vs a very good opponent and threw away my flagellents carelessly. eventual score was 19-1 to Andy....back down the table I go.
GAME 3: vs Brets Henry
Watchtower vs Brets with 10 archers...easy eh? nope I made a HUGE mistake of not putting my flagellants into the building. Instead I relied on 5 archers and got greedy trying to take out his knight buses with the flagellants-almost succeeded too grrr to poor flagellant placing. My 5 archers had to get out the building turn 5 to avoid a charge, hoping to tie up his peg knights for 1 more round of combat...nope. oh well. Searing DOOM FTW here. Took out 1 knight bus in 2 castings-even with 1st casting vs 4++ from MR. My knights took out another of his knights with a CR run down (1+ as and s6 BSB FTW). VHS was a lifesaver as my pope got a character bus to the face and spent the entire game slapping a paladin FINALLY killing him last round of combat. (seal of destruction removed the +3 attacks, +3 strength spell!) I almost died-on 1 wound left = 6 dice healing spell = roll 6 6's...like a boss. 2 units of 4 Peg knights and some beardy long range charges took out all my support and halberd block + mages. a 13-7 loss in the end that should have been a 10-10 or even 11-9 to me taking into consideration the 600pts I lost for not holding the tower end of turn 6...DONT BE GREEDY!
GAME 4: vs WoC Sam.
Banners mission.
So what happens when you cross a flying Chaos lord with charmed shied, 2+/ 3++ with xbows and 2 cannons? I'll tell you what. turn 1 -crossbows remove charmed shield, then cannons open up and get 2 wounds on the lord (grrr bad wounding roll). Turn 2 10 xbows unleash at close range and kill Lord! Also what happens when you cross a rocket battery with Marauders? BOOM is what you get. This game I fell in love with the Rocket battery. Casually killing 3 ranks of troops, "miss" target and still kill 8 guys. Carnage is all I can say. His knights + BSB cleaned up the flagellants in 2 rounds of combat with wasn't nice, but not unexpected. The hairy moment was when my knights charged a very depleted unit, killed all but 2...only for them to hold on snake eyes! I had spent AGES arranging my archers to stop a flank charge...nope. Horde of Marauders into the flank...3rd eye mindrazor and then sad face. Thankfully he has to challenge my BSB who survived long enough for my halberds to flank charge for the victory (having successfully killed 4 remain halberd warriors...5 wounds 5 failed 5+ AS). The knights died next round, but I still got enough points out of him (and took enough banners) to get a comfortable win built on the back of some of the worst rolling I have ever seen from Sam. Dice whispering...IT WORKS :P 19-1 to me.
GAME 5: vs Skaven Dan
Final game vs Skaven. Battleline. Little did I know, but my opponent is a member of this years ETC team...which explains the "deploy in opposite corner and rely on the fact I have more shooting" tactic :P SO that's exactly what happened. I killed 2 rat darts, 1 unit of gutter runners, 1 engineer with brass orb, WLC and Plague claw (got 2 wounds through then it exploded). He killed lvl4 and xbows (13th grrr), my artillery, outriders and my archer detachments. Worst moment was my archers sucking vs rat darts and running away sigh. ETC game play for a 12-8 win to the rats. I was an interesting game though. The cautious advance is a style I want to get better at, and it was a good lesson in how it is done.
END RESULT. 54 battle points, max sports and painting = NINTH. Top 10 is a fantastic result considering I won 2 and lost 3. Had I won the watchtower as a should have, I would have placed even higher. Oh well. My goal was to come out with more points than if I had drawn every game, and I achieved that.
THOUGHTS ON LIST:
Well, didnt need the Crown of Command after all in the end :P If I had had it I might have been more willing to commit to charges-and I really think that is the key point. I was cautious with the knights because I did not want to get bogged down. When I charged they were awesome so knights are a keeper (well, until April when everything changes). BSB Somight is too many points to pair with "beard of command" (my bsb has no helmet, but has an epic beard), so will need to think hard about how to arm him-though I suspect he will get access to normal items...GW and dragonhelm for s6 1+ As!
Flagellants: Take or leave them with lore of shadow. They really need lore of light to shine.In fact I was very unimpressed with the lore of Shadow all tournament. Only spell I ever cast was miasma. I was using my dice to cast searing doom or banishment to cause actual damage on stuff. OH- in the Bret game I cast light of battle for the first time EVER. wow. I think for future games I will revert back to lore of light on lvl4 and stick with metal on the lvl1. With the Walter providing bound spells I should have a very effective magic phase...and a lvl4 that wants to cast.
Rocket battery? YES PLEASE. Best shot of the event: killing 25 clan rats at max range...scatter brought me dead center of the unit. Would I bring 2? possibly, but would need to lose something and not too sure what that would be. 1 is heinous enough 2 is just plain filthy!
Did I miss the stank? Short answer "no". Long answer "without lore of light I would take it over flagellants". However bringing back lore of light = stick with flagellants. Too much lore of metal (6 armies at Runefang) to risk a stank, and there is always the shadow threat too.
Halberds over Swords? I keep hearing "Swords are better: ws4, i4, parry etc". I keep thinking "s4 ftw" + lore of light makes most of that irrelevant. The new book might change that...and if it does expect mass conversion of my flagellant meets graveguard swordsmen to get an awesome unit...
So back to the drawing board to get a cool list for gaming on Wednesday night. The Armies of Sigmar continue to march on.
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