Half the size = double the game!

Hi All,

So straight back into the warhammery goodness after Skitterleap. The next event, Vermintide, on the 17th of November is 1200pts, so a great excuse to try my hand at smaller (faster), less-forgiving-of-mistakes games.

For those that dont stalk me on the Warhammer Empire Forum (Joelatron) this is the list I am looking at taking:

Warrior Priest (General) 2HW, HA
BSB: FPA, Ench shield
lvl1 (fire) ruby ring
38 Halberds: FC
5 Archer detach
5 Archer detach

4 Demigriffs: M
4 Demigriffs: M

Hurricanum

BOOM! minimal shooting, and lots of scary and the return of the halberds after a wee bit of time on the shelf.

So next step is to test out the list, so my willing subject (Ryan) was more than happy to test his Vampire list against mine. He had:

Vamp lvl2: Barded steed, HA, Sh, lance, opal amulet, scroll, something that allowed re-rolls
necro lvl1: ruby ring
4x20 zombies: banner...BRAINS...
5 doggies
2 fellbats
2x5 Hexwraiths
9 Black Knights: FC

SO knight bus, ethereal knights and brains.

Ryan set up table all "evil" and I rolled up blood and glory. 

Deployment:

So straight away you see my mistake...AND I HAVE AN EXCUSE...well, a bad one.

I rolled up flame sword spell, meaning I was pretty confident that my demigriffs could get magical attacks. It also meant my game plan going in (sit back, let him come forward and fireball the crap out of stuff) was thrown out and I didnt deploy the horde centrally. It also denied my left flank BSB cover, and removed the SCRes big scary from conseration. But, this is why we have practice games so we realise these things when change up lists.

So what happened was a didnt get rubyring off and quickly learnt what hexwraiths do...counter monsterous "SCRes lite" calv. In charged a unit and as I picked up my dice to make armour saves I found that Hexwraiths ignore armour...I hold. I did however use the hurricanum bound and forced the bus to swift reform to get back facing the right way hehe.

So what's a Vamp to do? charge in a 2nd unit, scroll flame sword, and throw the bus into the other unit.

 Now this is where I need to remember to keep BSB in range of EVERYTHING. Hexwraith combat with re-rolls from van hels (very, very, very bad dispel roll from me!) =  dead and run down demigriffs, which panics Hurricanum that flees to board edge. Bus vs Angry chickens? I'm rather angry at losing my +1 to hit, and only miss once and kill 5 knights. However, I fail all 4 armour saves I had to make, lose by 1 and flee

So what's a human to do? I try charging a hexwraith unit with lvl1 and co to try flame sword my way to victory...err they forgot how to run and fail charge, so the Halberd block goes over the doggie speed bump and looks at the sea of zombies and decides the get their Resident Evil on and go bash som heads!

The re-roll to wound prayer is solid gold, and the new crumble/over run rules saved the zombies from too much death (re-death?) as I had 2 turns left, so killed 2 units. So much fun wading through zombies!

So yeah, lost this game, but at least I can identify where things went wrong.
1) stick to game plan
2) stick to fireball
3) deploy BSB horde central

GAME 2: Woodies

So I'm trying to get my friend Alex to commit to Vermintide, so I wrote him an MSU list to use that I secretly really like:

Noble: Eagle (T4!): LA, Sh, Spear, Stone of Rebirth, Dragonhelm, Potion of foolishness

10 Glade Guard: M, SB
10 Glade Guard: M
4 Dryads
4 Dryads
4 Dryads
4 Dryads

3 Treekin
5 Wildriders (M)

Eagle

Yeah! gotta love a ballsy list like that. Very combat orientated, no magic (pah!), and lots of drops.

We deployed:

So a typical woodie deployment with shooting off to one side and a good middle section that can easily disappear to the flanks if need be. Ryan in the pic (got first turn) is measuring his super 16 inch zombie charge of WTF charge into my vanguarded Wildriders. Sadly, unlike the teddy bears going to the picnic, there was no good suprise for the zombies as 10 s4 and 10 s3 attacks before they even thought about doing anything crumbled the zombies from 20 to 3 for the loss of 1 wildrider!


I attempted to do the same with some dryads on a unit of hexwraiths, but my dryads aint that stupid! However a 6 inch failed charge move was all I was going to move them anyway (probably would have preferred a little less) as I set about setting the trap.

Ryan promptly retreated with the hexwraiths, and moved his bus up to force my hand. He also did a tricksy move on my right flank to set up his hexwriaths to kill some glade guard.

I guess the measuring arc is a bit of a give away, but 10 points to Gryffindor for guessing my next move...

...yeah dont you hate Wood Elves and how they NEVER engage in combat???? The one thing I forgot to do was charge the wildriders at the necro "free points" bunker that was 16 inches away. Though with everything on the line in the big combat, this was a mere technicality at this point. At an event I would have measured their charge range to everything every turn to look for those sorts of opportunities.


I initially thought throwing in the noble was a bit of a mistake due to been unable to decline a challenge, but it was actually the best thing to do as it tied up the Cres generator (vamp) in a combat vs better stats (and a 2++ once I lost 2 wounds) for the loss of 3 s5 attacks from a very silly looking treekin who couldnt strike the unit. Dice were thrown, saves were made and failed on both sides and after crumble things looked like this:

Ryan tried to turn the tide with a quick invocate to raise back another 3 knights and the doggies flank charged, but the extra knights just = extra wounds for me to take = vamp died and crumbled causing army crumble! This is where sniping the necro would have been really useful! Ryan's tricksy move worked though as his hexwraiths got into a unit of glade guard, won combat, and I failed my steadfast (double 6, so properly failed) and ran off board-pursued by hexwraiths. However at that point the game was over as I had the bulk of my army staring at the weak spots of what remained of his BRAINS

So a good solid victory for the hemp wearing un-showered hippy tree hugging vegan elves.

Skitterleap day 2

Alrighty, day two.

My submarining was coming along..err...swimmingly. My goal for day 2 was to get 2 decent sized wins and I would be in the top 5.

After a beauty pagent (I voted for Matt's Dwarfs as I really like the effective simple colour scheme he has on them...very dwarfy) we were ready for game 4.

GAME 4 Meeting Engagement vs John D's Delves

So Eww...list number 2 I was hoping to avoid for the event. Cauldron of Blood buffed Black Guard and, lots of shooting, and a metal lvl4. To top it off I failed to roll up Final Transmutation giving me very little long range threat vs his list. So this was looking like draw central.

We deployed-John went first and had a unit of xbows, spears and the general off the board. I didnt have my lvl4, engineer, or stank on the board.

SO it was looking like a shoot off right from the get go. conveniently I stole first turn-getting my lvl4 on the board phew! My first actionw as to run down his darkriders with my Captasus and kill the chariot with cannons. In return I fluffed my dispelling, Captasus lost 2 points of armour and got shot to bits-Still up on points.

The game quickly devolved into a stand off with John  using the building to great effect to hide the cauldron, black guard and hydra from my cannons + blocking my lvl4's searing doom with lots of shooting with range on where I would have to be grrr.

So a quick bit of math (and betting my ICKS could wear some bolts) I moved my Demigriffs up as bait. However, my ICKs failed a swift reform, so I didnt have ldship and BSB support. This drew out the hydra and the coldone knights who I was fairly confident of at least holding against, allowing Stanky stank to flank in and win the day.

However, I forgot to factor in +1 attack from the cauldron =  lost combat and got run down. However, I then managed in turn to run down the hydra and Hellblaster the crap out of the coldone knights. 300 points traded (sadly) to take 345. Why didnt I just wait a turn? Well if I had waited his entire army would have been in hiding meaning it was 45Vps I would not have gotten given the draw like nature of the game-it also freed up my cannons to kill the smaller xbow unit and the lvl2-so yay!

And that was pretty much the game. As I moved my army outside of his xbow range and hoped like crazy my ICKS could hold out (2 left at end!)

Counting up points I had pulled it from a 10 all to 12-8 in my favour-trading the Demigriffs had paid off! Though I have to admit I've never, ever, ever until this game had the gross "play it like the ETC" vibes - and gone with it.

Of note is how amazing John's army was presented. He got 2nd place with an army that was full of theme and character...sadly being Delves it is a little NSFW for close up pics! I spent most of his movement phase spotting and admiring the little scenes built into his units. I suspect he didnt win best painted because the real beauty of his army could be easily missed with a casual glance-heck I missed it during the pagent!

 GAME 5 Battleline vs Tom D's DOC

Last game and I get my 2nd repeat match...however since our last encounter I had the benefit of a "stealth buff" on my Demigriffs...and the day before they had eaten a Billy's brother, and was hungry for the family feast of wicked wings (and other really bad KFC references).

Anywho deployment:

So yeah, as I'm sure Tom knows all too well, the scary part of his army is NOT the letter blocks, it's the super fast chaff-please note it is on the flanks. Also note that fast chaff (lots of) is one of the key counters to new Empire...not up there with Book of Broken searing doom, but close. Anyway, I digress.

Turn 1 involves Tom moving up (Special agent protection on Billy) and really hammering my flanks. Cannons Open up, kill the protection agent and then gets a single, super fustrating wound on Billy. The other cannon does something exciting. Turn 2 it is looking like a 20-nil to Tom.

So fiend, crusher and Billy on left flank, 2 screamer units and fiend on right. Please note my bad attempt with vanilla knights to try protect my flank. Stank kills some Bloodletters with steam gun and hellblaster strips a few Blood letters as well.

Turn 3 Billy, crusher, letters all charge.

Billy in flank of Demigriffs, letters in the front, bloodcrusher into vanilla knights. So vanilla knights break and run having had 2 Kblowed. Billy and bloodletters manage a few wounds between them, but then the Demigriffs get their peck on and win the combat B.O.O.M! One thing I had prepared in my panic (see above pics) was making sure my ICKS could get the flank charge in, so they rock on in. Sadly my BSB get's KBlowed, but I do more than enough wounds to the bloodletters that everyone is testing on double ones. With a cry of "TAKE IT OFF!" Billy is Cres'ed out!

So I set up for the 2nd unit who had finally chomped through the Stank.

Tom takes the bait. Crusher and Bloodletters charge into ICKS. My Art collector takes 2 wounds, but passes KBlow ward and then promptly kills the hearld who was BSB and had the -2 ldship icon. I hold the combat and then flank in with the demigriffs.

Lots of wounds later the letters and crusher pop leaving me to clean up the lvl2 with captasus and the fiend with ICKs.

One thing of note is that all those key combats I was sans lvl4 and reliant on prayers. When Billy charged in my bunker + wizards fled a screamer charge and popped out the other side of my line. They were then counter charged my fiend and ran to safety. They failed to rally and fled some more, then fled some more and eventually rallied in a forest. HOWEVER I forgot that skirmish = stubborn, and didnt bother setting them up to take the fiend charge. Fled charge and was run down. However at that point it didnt mean much...however it would have meant at least 1 more VP...So I won this one  18-2 (when it could have been 19-1), and got my revenge from the schooling Tom had given me just before the event.

END RESULT

My submarning was ALMOST successful as I ended up in a 3 way draw for 6th place (see all the incidents where I could have nabbed 1 more VP in games). Still very happy of that result, and a very enjoyable.

RESULT FOR THE YEAR

So apparently according to the ratings I am 16th in NZ. I did not anticipate ever making the top 20, so aiming for an invite to Masters next year is very achievable...just gotta not take a lolz list to vermintide and leave the woodies on the shelf given my very, very poor placing at Horned Gobbo! Might also require a trip up to one of the events in Hamilton/Tauranga/Auckland next year.

THOUGHTS ON MY LIST

To me, my list for Skitterleap was 85% of where it needed to be. I now officially love the lore of metal (causally 3 dicing Final Transmute), however it would have been nicer to have more from my support caster in the way of choices.  I still have some easy points that I need to shed/protect. So my post tournament Empire refinement has resulted in this:

Alector:            223
     Bsteed, AoDestiny, Sh, COC, Biting blade
lvl4: metal, scroll        225

BSB:                159
     Bsteed, FPA, sh, 4++, ICI
Captasus:            141
     FPA, ch.shield, DBGem, Somight
lvl2: light            100

13 ICKS: FC-Sodiscipline    370
5 Knights: m            120
10 archers            70
5 archer detach            35
5 archer detach            35

2 cannons            240
5 Dgriffs: m, sb        310
4 Dgriffs: m            242

Hurricanum            130
2400

So bye bye stank, hellblaster and engineer. These 3 things did nothing of note that justified the easy points they gave up.

Hello 4++ on BSB (trade off is Art Collector down to 2+/4++) and ICI,
Hello 4 more Demigriffs,
Hello standard on the Big unit to give me blood and glory protection and also give the unit some SCRes,
Hello 2nd lvl on light magic to give me more choices
Hello Hurricanum to make the Demigriffs super scary and compliment my lore choices + extra dice. Also at the end of the day it is a t5, s5 chariot + gives up less points that Stank.

If Crown is banned in comp I can swap it for re-roll armour on Artcollector and sheild of shielding (dropping ICI) to help protect vs lore of metal/MMissiles trying to get my bunker....in fact I will need to playtest this with no Crown...

Anywho post getting a little TL/DR so back to Stargate Atlantis and painting Demigriffs and my soon to be revealed fire mage

Skitterleap Day 1

Hi All,

So Skitterleap 2012. 22 players, and I'm the only Empire representative. I used the list that I've been using lately. Other lists can be found if follow link in last post.

I'll do a proper "my thoughts" at the end, but up front it was a really fun event, and I almost successfully submarined my way into the top 5 (in the 1st 3 games you can see the obvious "and this is where I lost 2 or 3 battlepoints).

Anywho:

GAME 1: Random deployment vs Joe D's WOC

This game can be summed up like this:

Please note I deployed the Demigriffs first and had the foresight to deploy them like that!

So the first couple of turns are me trying to unwind the puzzle under the pressure of a Comet that was IF'ed right in the middle.

It eventually hit, radius of heaps, s7 and killed my Hellblaster, 1 archer detach, a big chunk of my archer bunker, and more knights that I would usually be comfortable losing. We played a bit of cat and mouse, his front Knight block bore the brunt of Final Transmutation/searing doom/burning gaze/cannons.

 So I picked up the first unit with no combat, and then set my sights on the 2nd. In the mean time my vanilla knights are playing cat and mouse with Marauder horsemen and my stank is busy killing itself. Also I got flank charged by stubborn Chaos disc lord, who lost on SCR, failed re-roll test, fled...and I failed to catch.

End game: I put caution to the wind and went for the kill.

So knights to the front, captasus to the rear. Break unit-BSB dies-it escapes. Charge it again, win (again) and run it off the board.

So a 14-6 win to me thank you Mr stank blowing up turn 6 from mishaps (gain d3 steampoints and take the wounds)...sigh.

A fun, and good first game. Joe went on to win Skitterleap, so it's nice to know I blooded his army first.

GAME 2  Blood and Glory vs Mike K's DOC

YIKES! 3 bloodletter hordes, Billy the Bloodthirster's angry cousin, lvl2 life and token flamer bunker. The army I was least wanting to face. I had a quick chit chat with James before the game to ask for some "what the hell do I do? " advice...and well...

End of Mike's first turn. I then apply James' advice (Hit one, block one, ignore one)

BOOM! 2 wounds on Billy from impact hits. I think my plan is working...

Almost through...then I commit a tactical blunder/fall into Mike's cunning trap. He pulled the flamers + herald lvl2 out of the building to get better shots on my back line. I charge in my Captasus (2+ as, 2++ vs flame). Fail my fear test (fail to do any wounds). Flamers strike back. I fail 3  out of 4 armour saves, then fail 2 out of 3 2++ vs flame.  I then (naturally) fail my break test and run 4... This then opens up the flank of my Vanilla knights to the flamers (breaks and runs) who were waiting for the "ignore it" unit to get closer before I chaffed it. This then means a unit of bloodletters and flamers get to take out my back line...helped by my lvl4 going down the hole.

So anyway, I take out the "hit it" unit, my stank bites the dust, so I set up to recieve Billy (who survives a cannon hit with no wounds).

Billy hits, kills unit champ and gets flanked.

And to much yelling of "TAKE IT OFF" Billy is taken down by some angry chickens-but not before he kills my BSB-breaking me and giving up 600 extra VPs. 

Turn 6 I promptly flee charges, rally and we count up points.

I loose 3-17, however when you remove the 600VP boost, I only lost by just under 200VPs. In my books vs this list, that was a victory!

GAME 3 Watch Tower vs James M's Helves

Yay! a repeat of Thursday's game.

James gets the tower and we deploy (NSFW)

With hindsight from Thursday's game, I push up a lot more aggressively.

After a bit of chaffing (stank kills 2 eagles, Demigriffs kill 1), some Final Transmutation goodness (15 dead whitelions), some super horrible RBT shooting (2 rounds of 3 RBT's = dead captasus) and equally as bad cannon shooting (1 wound on a RBT in same time frame) our lines finallly meet (pic taken before Captasus gets skewered)

In Magic phase James thought it would be lolz to book of broken a purple sun through my knights and down my Demigriffs. 4 knights die and EVERY SINGLE DEMIGRIFF passes the test! Que looks of amazement on James' face.

Demigriffs vs Whitelions = dead whitelions over 2 rounds of Combat. On the other side of the board we decided to do "Dragon Princes vs Vanilla Knights" round 2.

I got the charge this time and due to no magic support I came off 2nd best, but I held all game WIN! The solo 1+ re-rolling 5++ noble had some fun killing chaff and hellblaster before he wore a cannon to the face. My Engineer got to try out his light armour...failed miserably :(

SO my Demigriffs and knights are rampaging, I finally kill the RBT on 1 wound and then I make a fatal mistake: I mis calculate how many turns I have left - ie I thought I had 2 turns, when only had 1. = on my last turn I'm not facing the RBT's for easy 200VPs, and instead I wear 2 RBT's worth of shooting and I'm left with this:

That's 370VPs in that final ICK...and a few nervous armoursaves my me!

So we add up the points. James has the tower making it a 10-10 draw-19pts in his favour. Grrr. Taking the RBT's would have moved that to 11-9 oh well. To think we joked during the break of playing for a draw...didnt think we would do it so convincingly!

So end of day 1 I'm on 29pts...1 short of the minimum of where I would like to be.

Day 2 to follow. 

Book of Broken and the lucky break test

Hi All,

SO *just* had a last minute practice game vs James M's High Elves. We were running our Skitterleap lists which you can find here.

To quickly give an idea of what I was up against: Book of Hoeth lvl4 with death and banner of sorcery, 3 eagles, 3 RBT's, solo noble with 1+ re-roll, 5 DPrinces, lots of archers, spear bunker, horde of the Whitelion goodness.

Purple Sun, DBZ style is all I could think of when I saw James' list. Good thing I had powered up to beyond 10000.


We rolled up battleline. I deployed rather centrally, he cornered on the opposite side of board to my hellblaster (who hid with engineer all game).

The game started with a bit of an artillery vs Archers war. I got 2 of his RBT for the loss of 2 artillery crew and a single shish kebab'ed demigriff (t4 dont help vs that!).

Turn 2 was expensive for me. ldship attack on the Stank = 7 wounds...ouch. I then casually comment that he "might as well" shoot the RBT at it...3 wounds later and the stank is off the board and I'm looking longingly at my painting table at its replacement Dgriffs... The dice luck went my way when James set up a double eagle flee trap on my knights. Both eagles fled, my captasus also made some stuff flee and caught a unit of archers BOOM. basically the eagles fled off the board while the other one wore a cannon. This opened up my options, however James was not keen to commit to combat (obviously) and I was very, very, very aware of the Whitelion horde and didnt want to give it an opening. 

On my right flank my chaff knights were sitting back anticipating the Dragon Princes trying something on. The did (charged the knights). I lose by 3, look to the heavens, pray to Sigmar (or is it Myrmidia-I'm never that up on the Empire fluff...I prefer Sigmar anyway) and casually pass a ldship 5 break test. Over the next couple of rounds (with the help of Transmutate) I wear down the Dragon Princes who eventually break and I run them down. This was very, very lucky for me as had my knights ran at any point I basically gave all my artillery, both mages and all my archers away as free VP's...yay for super vanilla knights!

Bottom of turn 5 the confrontation of knights and Dgriffs vs Whitelions is upon us. I set up the knights 9 inches away (when if a tournament game they would have been further back to flee the turn 6 charge) with the Demigriffs ready to flank. I make this aware as I was keen to see what would occur. Transmutate of lead on White lions for good measure.

Counting the VP's before the combat I was winning 11-9 (was 12-8 but James FINALLY killed one of my cannons after 6 turns of trying to roll 3 6's...even I was happy he got it!)

So the Whitelions get in with an impressive charge. Combat is painful as my BSB bites the dust (8 s6 attacks would do that though!) and I lose 3 knights. However in response I take down enough whitelions to win the combat by heaps. James takes the opportunity to reform into a long line to reduce the Demigriff attacks.

My Demigriffs go in. I get a 12 dice magic phase...Blades of Albian on the Dgriffs (his lvl4 fails to dispel-my lvl2 dies from 2nd miscast induced wound) so I throw dice at getting a 5+ ward and re-roll to wound -such an amazing prayer for the round after charge!

For fun my unit champ steps up to challenge the Whitelion champ (would NEVER usually do this-but fun) and dies. My knights and Demigriffs then kill ALL the remaining whitelions BEFORE stomps...and the unit champ is untouchable  due to challenge (and would have died to stomp sigh) so iI dont get the points for the unit...but morally I do.

Did the Book of Hoeth break the game?

No, no it did not. Amazingly poor rolling meant that the only wounds I suffered were 7 on the Stank, 2 on a demigriff, and purple sun killed a single knight. All it does is mean that any spell not IF'ed is dispelled. I did however forget to use my scroll when I had the chance....oh well. However in saying that I was very lucky not to lose any characters to it...but if James didnt have the Book I would have said the exact same thing.

A very fun game vs one of my NZTC team mates, and a good last minute warm up for Skitterleap.

Reports from last week and a new Warrior Priest

Hi all,

So *insert too busy/lazy excuse here* I finally have a quick report from the games at the Dunngeon.

Please note these games were pre FAQ.

GAME 1 vs Tom DoC

Gross, demons. Anywho we roll up battle for the pass. My first turn shooting phase is a massive fail. Then the game swings drastically...

Why hello Mr Billy the Blood Thirster and obvious Stank trap and solo fiend vs 5 Demigriffs...

Dead Billy, dead bloodcrusher, OMG the fiend survives...

Yeah...not cool. Maybe the Stank can save the day!

Nope...stupid random move! What is not pictured is my ICKS losing 5 from a forest and then getting smashed by Bloodletters

So yeah, lost that one

GAME 2 vs Pete Night Goblins and 2 Orcs

So what would be a rather themed list if not for the addition of a black orc warboss (for Stand of Discipline ldship10...so anti Goblin list!) and an Orc lvl4 so have access to real spells :P

So what happens with all this?

Foot of Gork later = no demigriffs and Doomdivers kill the Captasus

Failed Animosity to draws out 2 blocks...but of course they pass ldship 5 hold from over run into danger (see! No need for ldship 10...)



 Then Nurgle decided to intervene in the game.

Ahh real combat. My Stank then forgot how to generate breath weapon attacks (3 attempts...no more than 5 hits each time!) and the ldship10 re-roll is in force.

So I hold on to kill off the bus. I get flanked by the Squig hoppers who kill my BSB last turn. In other news 5 Knights vs pumpwagon then overrun into Anraknarok and hold for 3 rounds. It then pops out to say hello (fun game) and gets Hellblaster + 2 cannons to the face! and goes squish. In a "tournament" environment I wouldnt have done that as there was no way the anarknarok would expose itself to all my artillery.

SO lost that one too, but not by as much. I should have been more aggressive as I was a sh*t scared of fanatics + knights = bad times. Losing the Demigriffs early on was not nice....but now they are t4, so in future games they can run over fanatics no problem.

Thoughts from the games...bye bye stank...hello 4 more Demigriffs (on the painting table as I type!). Hopefully the Stank can redeem itself at Skitterleap.

THE WARRIOR PRIEST

Righty-so thinking ahead to Vermintide I will be running a block of Halberds + stuff. To lead them I need a Warrior Priest = excuse to paint up new character model!

So fail cast. I had to rebuild the left arm to allow the join to work. I also had to rebuild the nose and fill up the right hand hammer's head (basically hollow!).

Other than that, it was a nice model to paint. I tried to make him look a little "grizzled veteran". Nothing too fancy-just followed my basic paint scheme for my Empire. I am very much looking forward to running him on the table with a horde of Halberds.