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.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
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.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Rungfang V
Hi all.
So the army lists have been made public and the first round draw is up....I've been matched up with a dwarf army.
General observations:
1) Crown of Command is very fashionable. A little too fashionable. I feel like I have the only list that could have taken it that hasnt! I very much see the tactical worth of it-especially on my BSB in a unit of knights, but meh. I figured having a s6 BSB would be more cool (though Crown of command/somight is a tempting combo) and a little different.
2) lots of dwarfs and skaven. Seriously what's up with that? A little sad to see that none of them ventured away from the standard by too much especially with the prospect of multiple games vs them.
3) Glad I didnt bring a stank! With 4 dwarf armies, 5 skaven armies, HKB brets, and another Empire army out there that is 300 points of "free" for a lot of armies. Will my 30 flagellants be any better? Who knows. Historically that have been more fun to use and net me a better return (skink/gutter runner poison spam not withstanding), however the stank/walter combo is really, really good, but does mean most opponents give you a sideways look of "really?" I opted for less templates (only 3 of the available 4-stank taking up 2) because I wanted to rock the rocket battery and outriders before they all changed on me.
4) Maybe I should stop using the super fluffy Empire forum as my stopping point for Empire wisdom. Any forum that has threads that go on for pages and pages about the fluff should be avoided for tactical info! The term "net list" and that forum dont go hand in hand too well :P
If the rumours are true this could/should be my last outing with the 7th ed. Empire book at an event. Excited by the prospect of not having the field 2 cannons, stank/walter/stubborn 1+ as stuff to be competitive (hopefully). Hoping to place mid to upper field, but then again having no crown of command/stank could sink me down to the bottom field. Least favourite prospect is a weekend of games vs skaven and dwarfs that could happen if I end up in the mid field all event. Best prospect would be a tournament of games vs different armies as a last hurrah! for the Empire before I start fielding hordes of demigriffon riders :P
Will post battle run downs after the event and hopefully a few pics as well (if I can steal the camera for the weekend!)
So the army lists have been made public and the first round draw is up....I've been matched up with a dwarf army.
General observations:
1) Crown of Command is very fashionable. A little too fashionable. I feel like I have the only list that could have taken it that hasnt! I very much see the tactical worth of it-especially on my BSB in a unit of knights, but meh. I figured having a s6 BSB would be more cool (though Crown of command/somight is a tempting combo) and a little different.
2) lots of dwarfs and skaven. Seriously what's up with that? A little sad to see that none of them ventured away from the standard by too much especially with the prospect of multiple games vs them.
3) Glad I didnt bring a stank! With 4 dwarf armies, 5 skaven armies, HKB brets, and another Empire army out there that is 300 points of "free" for a lot of armies. Will my 30 flagellants be any better? Who knows. Historically that have been more fun to use and net me a better return (skink/gutter runner poison spam not withstanding), however the stank/walter combo is really, really good, but does mean most opponents give you a sideways look of "really?" I opted for less templates (only 3 of the available 4-stank taking up 2) because I wanted to rock the rocket battery and outriders before they all changed on me.
4) Maybe I should stop using the super fluffy Empire forum as my stopping point for Empire wisdom. Any forum that has threads that go on for pages and pages about the fluff should be avoided for tactical info! The term "net list" and that forum dont go hand in hand too well :P
If the rumours are true this could/should be my last outing with the 7th ed. Empire book at an event. Excited by the prospect of not having the field 2 cannons, stank/walter/stubborn 1+ as stuff to be competitive (hopefully). Hoping to place mid to upper field, but then again having no crown of command/stank could sink me down to the bottom field. Least favourite prospect is a weekend of games vs skaven and dwarfs that could happen if I end up in the mid field all event. Best prospect would be a tournament of games vs different armies as a last hurrah! for the Empire before I start fielding hordes of demigriffon riders :P
Will post battle run downs after the event and hopefully a few pics as well (if I can steal the camera for the weekend!)
Saturday, 25 February 2012
My latest efforts
Hey all.
Fresh off my experiment with MSU high elves in larger point games I have hit the modelling and started assembling my 3rd and 4th Griffons. I have tried to be a little bit more creative with these 2 so as to create some interest in an army that will have 5 of essentially the same "centrepiece' model.
So first of all the not so inventive one:
"Griffon carrying poor villager to their doom"
Nothing too exciting. Take Griffon, cut off all the mounted stuff, poorly greenstuff where feathers should be, rummage through spare bitz to find the giant hand that is carrying poor villager, spend ages cutting out the villager, find way it fits in eagle claw.
Rock on base is 1/2 the ent hand carrying rock that I thought looked a little like a rock with tree root growing over it. I will greenstuff a plant like thing to it when finished griffons.
Griffon two "swooping over broken pillar"
A wee bit more techical this one. First of all I cut off the left leg and pinned it back in on an angle (exactly like my first griffon but on the other leg). I had to use more greenstuff as this leg with a weakish pinned joint had to be able to take the weight of entire griffon. I then BOUGHT MY FIRST FINECAST miniture (the orc leaping off pillar from the LOTR range) purely to get the pillar which was in good order. The orc was a little worse for wear due to all the flash on a very small figure. A holding pin, lots of supper glue, plenty of tribute gifted to Sigmar, and all the metal extra crap I could find glued to the underside of the base, and it STILL needs an extra rock on the base for it to balance haha.
Also on the table I am currently painting up another 10 archers including a standard bearer so I can up on of the archer units to 19/20. My archers were the only things not to die in pretty much every game, and a bigger unit gives me somewhere to put the lvl4. This is all part of my move towards "shoot, divert, SMASH" tactic I am slowly developing and will begin playtesting once the archers and 2 griffons are table top worthy.
And finally I re-made my mounted BSB for the Empire for its last hurrah! at Runefang V before the new book moves all the artillery to rare etc. Once list submissions have closed I'll post my list and my thoughts about what I expect it to do.
Fresh off my experiment with MSU high elves in larger point games I have hit the modelling and started assembling my 3rd and 4th Griffons. I have tried to be a little bit more creative with these 2 so as to create some interest in an army that will have 5 of essentially the same "centrepiece' model.
So first of all the not so inventive one:
"Griffon carrying poor villager to their doom"
Nothing too exciting. Take Griffon, cut off all the mounted stuff, poorly greenstuff where feathers should be, rummage through spare bitz to find the giant hand that is carrying poor villager, spend ages cutting out the villager, find way it fits in eagle claw.
Rock on base is 1/2 the ent hand carrying rock that I thought looked a little like a rock with tree root growing over it. I will greenstuff a plant like thing to it when finished griffons.
Griffon two "swooping over broken pillar"
A wee bit more techical this one. First of all I cut off the left leg and pinned it back in on an angle (exactly like my first griffon but on the other leg). I had to use more greenstuff as this leg with a weakish pinned joint had to be able to take the weight of entire griffon. I then BOUGHT MY FIRST FINECAST miniture (the orc leaping off pillar from the LOTR range) purely to get the pillar which was in good order. The orc was a little worse for wear due to all the flash on a very small figure. A holding pin, lots of supper glue, plenty of tribute gifted to Sigmar, and all the metal extra crap I could find glued to the underside of the base, and it STILL needs an extra rock on the base for it to balance haha.
Also on the table I am currently painting up another 10 archers including a standard bearer so I can up on of the archer units to 19/20. My archers were the only things not to die in pretty much every game, and a bigger unit gives me somewhere to put the lvl4. This is all part of my move towards "shoot, divert, SMASH" tactic I am slowly developing and will begin playtesting once the archers and 2 griffons are table top worthy.
And finally I re-made my mounted BSB for the Empire for its last hurrah! at Runefang V before the new book moves all the artillery to rare etc. Once list submissions have closed I'll post my list and my thoughts about what I expect it to do.
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Homecon resutls and where it leaves the High Elves...
Righty. So Homecon was a HEAP of fun. FINALLY got to have another game vs Glen which was really fun and best demonstrated the holes in the list.
First of all my result: 13th, or 2nd to last. 4 losses-that were all effective wipe outs, and 1 hard won victory vs woodies.
Game 1 was vs Pete's Ogres. Impact hits...gross. Literally what won him the game, well that and a very cleverly executed list. Best part of the game was a unit of 10 archers taking out 2 ironblasters...IN COMBAT. 1st one had the help of an eagle and eagle noble in the flank for a run down. Archers ran into the front of 2nd ironblaster. Won combat due to my +1 CR for charging = run it down.
Game 2: Jack's Tomb Kings. Another hard match up due to big scary monsters. 1 died easily to MINDRAZORED spears, while the other refused to die/crumble no matter what I threw at it (eventually tarpitted it on ethereal mage!). That warkitty did 23 out of a potential 24 thunderstomps too. I was frustratingly close to winning the game twice. 1st time was when my Dragon princes got a charge off on his archer unit in front of the bunker. A few extra kills and I would have been into the general's unit. Once that failed, my spears (fresh off MINDRAZORing a warkitty) successfully punched through the remainder of the unit....only to not roll high enough on the over run. sigh. Eagle noble took out heirotitan on the charge ftw! Another effective tabling.
Game 3 vs Joe's Woodies. Running the Woodie list from the Oz ETC team, Joe was a relative N00B with the woodies. However, he is a very good player who had me chasing him into a corner. a unit of 5 wardancers held up my Phoenix guard and spears for too many rounds of combat, delaying me getting everything into his blocks. Same thing with dryads in a forest I had to move through to get to his army. My lvl4 was dwellered turn 1 too. Best part was when 7 Phoenix Guard were front charged by 3 Treekin and rear charged by 5 wildriders...I killed 2 wildriders and then suffered NO casualties in return (4++ FTW). Win for me, but a very hard win.
Game 4 vs Glen's VCs. Took me till turn 4 to kill the mortis engine (longest it lived all weekend)...Eagle noble once again the hero. This game was lost in a failed overrun (needed a 3, rolled snake eyes), and my Phoenix guard getting stuck on a unit I was expecting to punch through (ward save, why art thou abandon me????). A case of trading too many points at the wrong time. Eagle road blocks dying the mortis engine (and therefore defeating the point of the road block) didnt help either!
Game 5 vs Sams OnG. lost turn 1 when goblins were hand of gorked 20 inches forward, releasing fanatics that killed my Dragon Princes, causing eagle noble to panic off the board. Waagh-tillery did the rest and I did not have the numbers to sustain a grind and was tramped down quickly...1 kill short of getting his Black Orcs grrr.
THE GOOD THINGS:
1) The eagle noble with defensive kit is not a permanent fixture. Did what I expected him to do (kill monsters) perfectly.
2) The core. Spears and archers will never let you down; they do exactly what you expect them to do. 20 spears however is not enough as 1 wound and lose 3 ranks. 25 is a much better number!
3) The Eagles
4) Dragon Princes. Only got 1 charge off all event, but everyone saw them as a threat, giving the rest of my army some breathing space.
5) robes on the lvl4.
6) Did you know great Eagles are ws5??????????? I always thought they were ws 4!
THE BAD THINGS:
1) MSU at this points lvl (well, at the extent I took it) does not work unless your opponent has to come to you and has no impact hits...so basically vs WOC. I thought the number of units meant I could create a swarm and get lots of flanks etc. Instead, I just got in my own way. Maybe less, slightly bigger units would be been better...
2) Phoenix Guard are a big pile of fail. They excel at ONE THING...not dying, and even then that cannot be relied on. 1s4 attack does not kill anything, meaning that I needed the magic buffs to do anything.
So what does this all mean for the High Elves?
1) Phoenix Guard go back to being cool display models and the Whitelions make a come back as a combat block...preferably horde formation.
2) less units, but not necessarily much bigger units. 7 Swordmasters pack a huge punch, but still have a "throw away" feel about them. A good balance I am looking forward to exploring.
3) 4 Eagles. Need the chaff to get the set ups and protect the vital combats. 2 die too quickly and cannot do everything they need to.
4) More shooting and bigger spears.
5) A support mage with magic missiles. OMG a must when using shadow!
6) Having an army that can deploy "back" and take its time. I dont feel comfortable rushing an army forward to get position as it usually means running into opposing army traps.
My musings over the weekend had produced my first list for playtesting now that I have 2 more IoB Griffons on the desk waiting conversion:
lvl4: shadow, scroll, robes 325
BSB: GW, AoC, Aolight 158
Eaglenoble: Lance, DA, Chshield, 4++ 195
lvl1: Fire 100
10 Archers: M 115
20 Archers: M, SB 235
25 Spears: FC 250
27 Wlions: FC-flame, ICI 450
2x7 Smasters 210
5 LionPrinces: M 160
4 Eagles 200
2398
Very conscious of only having 2 combat blocks, but will be interesting to see how it plays out considering all the stuff that can redirect etc. I'm also thinking whether shadow is the "best" lore for a list like this. Maybe beasts would be the better choice as it also has all the tools needed to deal with stuff, and less of a need to be in combat to do so.
There is also the option of dropping the swordmasters and Lionprinces for a 2nd white lion block if the smaller stuff if finding itself a bit useless/out matched vs stuff that is not WoC.
The musings continue...
First of all my result: 13th, or 2nd to last. 4 losses-that were all effective wipe outs, and 1 hard won victory vs woodies.
Game 1 was vs Pete's Ogres. Impact hits...gross. Literally what won him the game, well that and a very cleverly executed list. Best part of the game was a unit of 10 archers taking out 2 ironblasters...IN COMBAT. 1st one had the help of an eagle and eagle noble in the flank for a run down. Archers ran into the front of 2nd ironblaster. Won combat due to my +1 CR for charging = run it down.
Game 2: Jack's Tomb Kings. Another hard match up due to big scary monsters. 1 died easily to MINDRAZORED spears, while the other refused to die/crumble no matter what I threw at it (eventually tarpitted it on ethereal mage!). That warkitty did 23 out of a potential 24 thunderstomps too. I was frustratingly close to winning the game twice. 1st time was when my Dragon princes got a charge off on his archer unit in front of the bunker. A few extra kills and I would have been into the general's unit. Once that failed, my spears (fresh off MINDRAZORing a warkitty) successfully punched through the remainder of the unit....only to not roll high enough on the over run. sigh. Eagle noble took out heirotitan on the charge ftw! Another effective tabling.
Game 3 vs Joe's Woodies. Running the Woodie list from the Oz ETC team, Joe was a relative N00B with the woodies. However, he is a very good player who had me chasing him into a corner. a unit of 5 wardancers held up my Phoenix guard and spears for too many rounds of combat, delaying me getting everything into his blocks. Same thing with dryads in a forest I had to move through to get to his army. My lvl4 was dwellered turn 1 too. Best part was when 7 Phoenix Guard were front charged by 3 Treekin and rear charged by 5 wildriders...I killed 2 wildriders and then suffered NO casualties in return (4++ FTW). Win for me, but a very hard win.
Game 4 vs Glen's VCs. Took me till turn 4 to kill the mortis engine (longest it lived all weekend)...Eagle noble once again the hero. This game was lost in a failed overrun (needed a 3, rolled snake eyes), and my Phoenix guard getting stuck on a unit I was expecting to punch through (ward save, why art thou abandon me????). A case of trading too many points at the wrong time. Eagle road blocks dying the mortis engine (and therefore defeating the point of the road block) didnt help either!
Game 5 vs Sams OnG. lost turn 1 when goblins were hand of gorked 20 inches forward, releasing fanatics that killed my Dragon Princes, causing eagle noble to panic off the board. Waagh-tillery did the rest and I did not have the numbers to sustain a grind and was tramped down quickly...1 kill short of getting his Black Orcs grrr.
THE GOOD THINGS:
1) The eagle noble with defensive kit is not a permanent fixture. Did what I expected him to do (kill monsters) perfectly.
2) The core. Spears and archers will never let you down; they do exactly what you expect them to do. 20 spears however is not enough as 1 wound and lose 3 ranks. 25 is a much better number!
3) The Eagles
4) Dragon Princes. Only got 1 charge off all event, but everyone saw them as a threat, giving the rest of my army some breathing space.
5) robes on the lvl4.
6) Did you know great Eagles are ws5??????????? I always thought they were ws 4!
THE BAD THINGS:
1) MSU at this points lvl (well, at the extent I took it) does not work unless your opponent has to come to you and has no impact hits...so basically vs WOC. I thought the number of units meant I could create a swarm and get lots of flanks etc. Instead, I just got in my own way. Maybe less, slightly bigger units would be been better...
2) Phoenix Guard are a big pile of fail. They excel at ONE THING...not dying, and even then that cannot be relied on. 1s4 attack does not kill anything, meaning that I needed the magic buffs to do anything.
So what does this all mean for the High Elves?
1) Phoenix Guard go back to being cool display models and the Whitelions make a come back as a combat block...preferably horde formation.
2) less units, but not necessarily much bigger units. 7 Swordmasters pack a huge punch, but still have a "throw away" feel about them. A good balance I am looking forward to exploring.
3) 4 Eagles. Need the chaff to get the set ups and protect the vital combats. 2 die too quickly and cannot do everything they need to.
4) More shooting and bigger spears.
5) A support mage with magic missiles. OMG a must when using shadow!
6) Having an army that can deploy "back" and take its time. I dont feel comfortable rushing an army forward to get position as it usually means running into opposing army traps.
My musings over the weekend had produced my first list for playtesting now that I have 2 more IoB Griffons on the desk waiting conversion:
lvl4: shadow, scroll, robes 325
BSB: GW, AoC, Aolight 158
Eaglenoble: Lance, DA, Chshield, 4++ 195
lvl1: Fire 100
10 Archers: M 115
20 Archers: M, SB 235
25 Spears: FC 250
27 Wlions: FC-flame, ICI 450
2x7 Smasters 210
5 LionPrinces: M 160
4 Eagles 200
2398
Very conscious of only having 2 combat blocks, but will be interesting to see how it plays out considering all the stuff that can redirect etc. I'm also thinking whether shadow is the "best" lore for a list like this. Maybe beasts would be the better choice as it also has all the tools needed to deal with stuff, and less of a need to be in combat to do so.
There is also the option of dropping the swordmasters and Lionprinces for a 2nd white lion block if the smaller stuff if finding itself a bit useless/out matched vs stuff that is not WoC.
The musings continue...
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Homecon II List: ode to stupid international delivery times and frantic painting
Righty, so Homecon II lists have been submitted, so I can now safely reveal my list to all.
I am taking:
lvl4: (general) shadow, scroll, Folariath's Robes, dragonbane gem
BSB: GW, Armour of Caledor, Dawnstone
Noble: Eagle, Dragon Armour, Lance, ch. shield, talisman of preservation
2x20 Spears: Full Command
2x10 Archers: Musician
22 Phoenix Guard: Full Command-amulet of light and flame banner
3x6 White Lions
2x5 Swordmasters
5 Lion Princes: Musician
2 Eagles
SO a nice MSU list with Phoenix Guard bunker holding all the points (waitin to get 13th or gatewayed)
I had a practice game last night vs Dave's skaven that was missing a furnace and storm banner. My many units gave me a good advantage in setting up favourable charges etc, so that was great. 5 Swordmasters vs 41 slaves (enfeebled to s2) = swordmasters kill most of them until 6 wlions came to help with the clean up-good indication of their power vs hordes!
5 Mindrazored swordmasters in flank of HPA = dead HPA (who came back to life on 6 wounds, so all for naught haha).
THe units of 6 white lions were not as amazing as they were in the 1200pt tournament, but in that event I did not have to take on massive hordes of s3 which I know they are not that flash hot against (however vs such lists they can become great redirectors and road blocks).
However, it was not the list I was wanting to field. What I wanted to field relied on stuff arriving from the UK.
My preferred list:
lvl4: (general) shadow, scroll, robes
BSB: armour of caledor, ICI, luckstone
Noble: Eagle, dragon armour, lance, ch, shield, talisman of preservation
38 spears: FC-gleaming pendant
2x10 Archers: Musician
26 White Lion: FC-amulet of light, flame banner
3x6 white lions
2x5 swordmasters
5 Lion Princes: M
2 Eagles
KEY DIFFERENCE
What I wanted to run had a serious hammer unit = the spears could be a massive anvil of grinding awesomeness. However since running the Phoenix Guard the spears need to become a more offensive unit = 2x20 to give combat flexibility
Also my original idea has a cool Chrace theme...kinda broken with the Phoenix Guard, however they were very fun to paint and I now LOVE the models.
I'm not going spend the weekend thinking "man, a horde of s6 would be useful about now", instead it is going to be about tanking and setting up the combo charges the good o' fashion way. THIS WILL BE MY FIRST EVENT IN 8th (of proper sized games) NOT RUNNING A HORDE UNIT OF KILLING AWESOMENESS....looking forward to see if I actually have some tactical skill beyond shoving millions of attacks into something. With a tough field I am really looking forward to the games and will be using them as a chance to really learn how the High Elves work and test their weaknesses and strengths vs top caliber opponents.
I am taking:
lvl4: (general) shadow, scroll, Folariath's Robes, dragonbane gem
BSB: GW, Armour of Caledor, Dawnstone
Noble: Eagle, Dragon Armour, Lance, ch. shield, talisman of preservation
2x20 Spears: Full Command
2x10 Archers: Musician
22 Phoenix Guard: Full Command-amulet of light and flame banner
3x6 White Lions
2x5 Swordmasters
5 Lion Princes: Musician
2 Eagles
SO a nice MSU list with Phoenix Guard bunker holding all the points (waitin to get 13th or gatewayed)
I had a practice game last night vs Dave's skaven that was missing a furnace and storm banner. My many units gave me a good advantage in setting up favourable charges etc, so that was great. 5 Swordmasters vs 41 slaves (enfeebled to s2) = swordmasters kill most of them until 6 wlions came to help with the clean up-good indication of their power vs hordes!
5 Mindrazored swordmasters in flank of HPA = dead HPA (who came back to life on 6 wounds, so all for naught haha).
THe units of 6 white lions were not as amazing as they were in the 1200pt tournament, but in that event I did not have to take on massive hordes of s3 which I know they are not that flash hot against (however vs such lists they can become great redirectors and road blocks).
However, it was not the list I was wanting to field. What I wanted to field relied on stuff arriving from the UK.
My preferred list:
lvl4: (general) shadow, scroll, robes
BSB: armour of caledor, ICI, luckstone
Noble: Eagle, dragon armour, lance, ch, shield, talisman of preservation
38 spears: FC-gleaming pendant
2x10 Archers: Musician
26 White Lion: FC-amulet of light, flame banner
3x6 white lions
2x5 swordmasters
5 Lion Princes: M
2 Eagles
KEY DIFFERENCE
What I wanted to run had a serious hammer unit = the spears could be a massive anvil of grinding awesomeness. However since running the Phoenix Guard the spears need to become a more offensive unit = 2x20 to give combat flexibility
Also my original idea has a cool Chrace theme...kinda broken with the Phoenix Guard, however they were very fun to paint and I now LOVE the models.
I'm not going spend the weekend thinking "man, a horde of s6 would be useful about now", instead it is going to be about tanking and setting up the combo charges the good o' fashion way. THIS WILL BE MY FIRST EVENT IN 8th (of proper sized games) NOT RUNNING A HORDE UNIT OF KILLING AWESOMENESS....looking forward to see if I actually have some tactical skill beyond shoving millions of attacks into something. With a tough field I am really looking forward to the games and will be using them as a chance to really learn how the High Elves work and test their weaknesses and strengths vs top caliber opponents.
Saturday, 4 February 2012
Painting update-Dryads and Phoenix Guard
Sup all.
Sorry for the delay. Laziness got in the way meaning setting up the tripod seemed like too much work.
Anyway, as promised my new dryad colour scheme.
I cannot take the credit for the colour scheme. I found it on some blog that was linked in a signature of a contributor to asrai.org. Basically the entire model get's the "Sam treatment" (dheneb stone). Then I went over all the sticky out parts with skull white. The red was then based coated the cital foundation red, dry brushed blood red, then dry brushed vomit brown (lightly!). I then covered the entire model in Devlan Mud. Any bones were then highlighed bleached bone and the leaves were base coated dark angel green, then goblin green, then goblin green/rotten flesh mix for highlight.
You will also note that the models are based! Very, very exciting. 2 tones of static grass to give it a foresty feel. No rocks or anything like that were added because a lot of my woodies have stuff on the base anyway to add spot interest here and there.
Right-now onto the Phoenix Guard:
Only the front 2 ranks painted so far. You will notice my BAMF Prince on the left corner and mage in the right corner of 1st pic. This is because I am 99% sure I will be running a block of these guys at Homecon with Mage Knight Prince and Robed lvl4 with Shadow (and banner of sorcery ofc!), So I figured I would get a group pic to show their coolness. I initially was only going to use them because my extra whitelions have yet to arrive (grrr), but the more I painted them, the more I wanted to use them because they also look cool. Mage Knight then got added to the idea because he is also cool....so it spiralled haha.
On the command pic you will notice the unit champ is too cool to use a weapon. He instead points and stares at his enemies and kills them that way. I also did my first EVER wet mixing on the banner to get the flame affect. Up til that banner any flame I have painted has either been 3D or very small (see BSB banner). This large area presented challenges for the "just layer it" approach as it would look too obvious. SO with a bright orange "mid tone" base colour to work over I went about moving from Sunburst Yellow to Bright Orange, to Blood Red, to Red Gore. Not as hard as I feared it would be...but not a technique to be used on a mass scale! Just good to have another trick up the sleeve.
So that's that. Next post will most likely be my finalised Homecon List. I have settled on taking the High Elves (Empire can wait for Runefang), so will be experimenting with lists till then (99% settled on list-stupid tweaking!).
Sorry for the delay. Laziness got in the way meaning setting up the tripod seemed like too much work.
Anyway, as promised my new dryad colour scheme.
You will also note that the models are based! Very, very exciting. 2 tones of static grass to give it a foresty feel. No rocks or anything like that were added because a lot of my woodies have stuff on the base anyway to add spot interest here and there.
Right-now onto the Phoenix Guard:
Only the front 2 ranks painted so far. You will notice my BAMF Prince on the left corner and mage in the right corner of 1st pic. This is because I am 99% sure I will be running a block of these guys at Homecon with Mage Knight Prince and Robed lvl4 with Shadow (and banner of sorcery ofc!), So I figured I would get a group pic to show their coolness. I initially was only going to use them because my extra whitelions have yet to arrive (grrr), but the more I painted them, the more I wanted to use them because they also look cool. Mage Knight then got added to the idea because he is also cool....so it spiralled haha.
On the command pic you will notice the unit champ is too cool to use a weapon. He instead points and stares at his enemies and kills them that way. I also did my first EVER wet mixing on the banner to get the flame affect. Up til that banner any flame I have painted has either been 3D or very small (see BSB banner). This large area presented challenges for the "just layer it" approach as it would look too obvious. SO with a bright orange "mid tone" base colour to work over I went about moving from Sunburst Yellow to Bright Orange, to Blood Red, to Red Gore. Not as hard as I feared it would be...but not a technique to be used on a mass scale! Just good to have another trick up the sleeve.
So that's that. Next post will most likely be my finalised Homecon List. I have settled on taking the High Elves (Empire can wait for Runefang), so will be experimenting with lists till then (99% settled on list-stupid tweaking!).
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