Egad. Lizards again. Hrm...
Somehow a draw in the previous round netted me a harder Lizard list in Round 4 :) In a way it was heartening to see the diversity between this list and the previous one. In a way it was disheartening to realise I'd played the odds and ended up facing a list that was going to annihilate me in the magic, shooting AND combat phases.
Ryan (brother of Russell - playing VCs at the same tournament) was (is) a lovely chap who I think played VERY well. His deployment was clever, he had a reasonable amount of luck but not so much that I consider it to be the determining factor in the game, he moved carefully, and he played to the strengths of the list. The stuff I killed off (which was really not much at all) was pretty much the stuff he wanted me to kill off. Good solid Warhammer on his part I reckon.
Ryan had:
4th Slann with Tepok, BSB and Warbanner (standard kit - very effective apart from not having the Banehead)
Scar-Vet with Quetzl, Sword of Might and Maiming Shield
Priest with Scroll
20 Saurus - full command
10 Skinks with Pipes
10 Scouts with Pipes
14 Skinks with Javs
20 Quetzl Saurus - full command
3 Krox
3 Krox
3 Salamander Packs
A decent list erring on the hard side (I'm guessing the magic and the Sallies) and as a result Ryan recieved a -6 NCM for his comp score.
A quick brain total told me that the Slann/Quetzl bunker was worth just over 1000VPs (assuming I kill it/catch it) and that it was quite beyond me to achieve this. That meant looking to kill everything else which was going to be unlikely given all the Skirmishing nastiness that was lurking around.
The Slann rolled up: Burning Iron (bah), Lead, Steed, Shades and Creeping Death. The Priest got 2nd Sign.
The Wizard rolled up Steed and the incredibly and undeniably awesome and yet totally crap Crown of Taidron. WTF is this spell about?! So the Wizard was neutered. This signalled the collapse of my brain functioning properly - why the hell I rolled on Shadows I can't honestly remember (Pit? Lurker? As if!!) when Fire would have been SO much more useful. Idiot.
Being the complete chicken I am most of my army hid behind a hill in my deployment zone, courageously pushing the shooting troops out in front to take the heat. My brave BSB and General hid from the Slann and his smoking gun (Burning Iron). As a result most of my army didn't participate in the game which was obviously a pity but good in that they also didn't die :)
Cockups:
- charged and scared away some Scouts with the GW-Knights who (just) hit a forest, forgot to move in my next turn, and were all smoked when the Frog clocked up 7 sixes with Creeping Death. Nice.
- The Knights surviving 18 Salamander shots, charging them, Sallies flee 5" and get away (8" and they would have fled the board). Knights flanked by Krox. Knights flee, fail to rally, get within 2" of the board edge. Knights rally deep in difficult to terrain. Knights survive but contribute nothing to the game.
- Cannon kills a Krox. they don't panic (way WAY away from the General's leadership). Pistoliers (and magic and other shooting) fail to kill another one (two wounds caused). Krox chase off Pistoliers, Cannon and break after charging Swordsmen. General solo charges and chases them off the board. Some bad luck not taking them out before they hit but also the fact that they absorbed the attention of so much of my army was annoying.
- Last turn the Handgunners and General hit the flank of a much depleted Saurus unit (NOT the Quetzl). General fluffs, 2 Handhunners die (from the one Saurus who could attack them). Empire lose testing at -1, standing right next to the Empire BSB). Handgunners pass. General fails. General fails break reroll. Here you go Ryan, let me just give you 250VPs. Dammit! It was a stupid idea in the first place - Lizards have to lose combat by 4-5 before they get worried about breaking (when the General/BSB is nearby). What a noob play that was!
In the end I lost the General (who was a complete twat and deserved to die), GW-Knights, Crossbows, Huntsmen, Flagellents (holding up the Quetzl block), Pistoliers, Cannon, Mortar and Ryan had a table quarter.
All I took off Ryan was a quarter, 1/2 the Saurus, 10 Skinks and 1/2 of the 14-Jav unit, and a unit of Krox. Difference in totals was 647VPs - enough for me suffer a 13-7 loss.
If I hadn't committed the General is would have been a 12-8 loss. That one extra point of my tournament score would have put me up one place. Need to think about this much more carefully in the future (sorry Trent - all those lessons... time for another reread methinks).
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Interlude... interval... break time... something else...
This is the part where you go out and grab some popcorn. Anybody remember when that actually still happened at the movies? I vividly recall seeing Karate Kid at the movies and getting a Crunchie bar during the interval. When I left the theatre my shirt was covered in chocolate - somehow I'd gotten it all over my hands and ergo, all over my shirt. What it is to be 6yrs old eh?
What kind of parents let their 6yr old watch the Karate Kid?! The number of times I almost broke my neck after that trying to do the Crane Stance...
None of that is really Warhammer relevant. But this next bit is...
Derick came over for a game last night. Must be something wrong with us wanting so much Warhammer in week (having just come out of a 6-game tournament) but anyway we got together last night some 2250pt action: Empire vs Chaos Mortals.
Derick is currently playtesting various formats of his Chaos army - heavily (literally) Warrior-based. Dangerous and TOUGH but very slow. Looked something like this:
Khorne Chaos Lord of STAY THE HELL AWAY! with sword of TERRORRRRR! and Enchanted Shield
L2 Nurgle - mounted, biting blade
L2 Slannesh - mounted. scroll
L2 Tzeentch - Blood of Tzeentch, Puppet
19 Tzeentch Warriors
13 Nurgle Warriors
18 Slannesh Warriors
21 Slannesh Marauders
2 x 5 Hounds
6 Choppy Choppy Chosen
2 Spawn
Hellcannon
Whole lot of hardness right there.
To my great disappointment my 2250pt army is not dissimilar to my FluffyCon list. Add in a Cannon, turn the Captain into a General of the Empire (who is CRAP), flick in 2 x 5 Archer detachments for the Crossbows and 5 Swordsmen to make it a block of 25 and that's about it.
That means facing the above I had 4DD and a scroll. Lovely.
Actually I managed to hold off the magic for most of the game which was a surprise (8 power dice, Tzeentch dude getting +1 to his rolls thanks to the mark). I thought the variety of spell options available with the 3 casters was awesome.
The Chosen were avoided for the duration of the game. They almost got the charge on the cheapo bait GW-Knights but never touched any of my dudes. I didn't need to get into a combat to find out how insane they are (even though there were only 6!).
The Tzeentch Warriors and their casty mate charged the Swordsmen, I elected NOT to counter-charge with their detachment (because it would have allowed the Chosen to Frenzy-charge in the compulsory moves phase) but incredibly the static res 6 Swordsmen (with the BSB) beat off the Chaos scum and chased them down! Hoo-yar! How hard are Swordsmen!!!???
Not very it turns out. Their pursuit gave the Swordsmen a rear-charge against the Slannesh Warriors who were busy carving up Flagellents. The Swords/BSB caused no wounds and the Slannesh Warriors casually turned around and chopped 3 of them to death. Combined with wounds against the Flagellents I lost combat by 4 (that's with static res of 8!!!!). The Swords managed to hold but lost combat in the next turn and broke with the death of the last Flagellent, getting run down for their tenacity.
One Marauder survived the game. The block took Mortar, Crossbow and Handgun fire but of course the Slannesh mark prevented them from panicking. Good stuff.
My Wizard bravely stepped out by himself, failed to get off his first attempted spell and took the Slanneshi 'fail a leadership test, take the number of wounds that you fail by' spell. Rolled a '3' on 2 dice to dispel it so it got through. Promptly rolled a 9 for his test. Out of range of the General = poof! Splat! Caned.
The Spears took a charge from the Nurgle block who got off a regen spell (which I let through assuming I was unlikely to get a wound anyway - hitting on 5s, wounding on 5s, saving on 2s...). Again the Spears broke them thanks to static res and the presence of the Empire General. For interests sake I placed them to take a charge from the Slannesh Warriors in the last turn but nothing much came from the combat (lost by one, passed the break check).
The Hellcannon Terrored the Reiksguard who rallied and eventually charged. They killed the Dwarf crew before being eaten by the Hellcannon and auto-broken. The Hellcannon was then fed 5 Archers to keep it busy in the last turn.
Despite "only" having the Slannesh Warriors and Sorcerer, the Chosen with Khorne boss, and the Hellcannon left, Derick won by around 300pts. Tough game, tough army. He'll be trying some other things out I'm sure (the Chosen were far too easy to avoid or bait). It's definitely a different pace of army and game from the Spider Riders but if anyone's earned the right to stack the odds a little I reckon it would be Derick :) I didn't play particularly well - really tired after the weekend and work is a bit rough but still an enjoyable game against an always entertaining opponent.
So, as per the plan from the previous post, next up - Lizardmen. Again :)
What kind of parents let their 6yr old watch the Karate Kid?! The number of times I almost broke my neck after that trying to do the Crane Stance...
None of that is really Warhammer relevant. But this next bit is...
Derick came over for a game last night. Must be something wrong with us wanting so much Warhammer in week (having just come out of a 6-game tournament) but anyway we got together last night some 2250pt action: Empire vs Chaos Mortals.
Derick is currently playtesting various formats of his Chaos army - heavily (literally) Warrior-based. Dangerous and TOUGH but very slow. Looked something like this:
Khorne Chaos Lord of STAY THE HELL AWAY! with sword of TERRORRRRR! and Enchanted Shield
L2 Nurgle - mounted, biting blade
L2 Slannesh - mounted. scroll
L2 Tzeentch - Blood of Tzeentch, Puppet
19 Tzeentch Warriors
13 Nurgle Warriors
18 Slannesh Warriors
21 Slannesh Marauders
2 x 5 Hounds
6 Choppy Choppy Chosen
2 Spawn
Hellcannon
Whole lot of hardness right there.
To my great disappointment my 2250pt army is not dissimilar to my FluffyCon list. Add in a Cannon, turn the Captain into a General of the Empire (who is CRAP), flick in 2 x 5 Archer detachments for the Crossbows and 5 Swordsmen to make it a block of 25 and that's about it.
That means facing the above I had 4DD and a scroll. Lovely.
Actually I managed to hold off the magic for most of the game which was a surprise (8 power dice, Tzeentch dude getting +1 to his rolls thanks to the mark). I thought the variety of spell options available with the 3 casters was awesome.
The Chosen were avoided for the duration of the game. They almost got the charge on the cheapo bait GW-Knights but never touched any of my dudes. I didn't need to get into a combat to find out how insane they are (even though there were only 6!).
The Tzeentch Warriors and their casty mate charged the Swordsmen, I elected NOT to counter-charge with their detachment (because it would have allowed the Chosen to Frenzy-charge in the compulsory moves phase) but incredibly the static res 6 Swordsmen (with the BSB) beat off the Chaos scum and chased them down! Hoo-yar! How hard are Swordsmen!!!???
Not very it turns out. Their pursuit gave the Swordsmen a rear-charge against the Slannesh Warriors who were busy carving up Flagellents. The Swords/BSB caused no wounds and the Slannesh Warriors casually turned around and chopped 3 of them to death. Combined with wounds against the Flagellents I lost combat by 4 (that's with static res of 8!!!!). The Swords managed to hold but lost combat in the next turn and broke with the death of the last Flagellent, getting run down for their tenacity.
One Marauder survived the game. The block took Mortar, Crossbow and Handgun fire but of course the Slannesh mark prevented them from panicking. Good stuff.
My Wizard bravely stepped out by himself, failed to get off his first attempted spell and took the Slanneshi 'fail a leadership test, take the number of wounds that you fail by' spell. Rolled a '3' on 2 dice to dispel it so it got through. Promptly rolled a 9 for his test. Out of range of the General = poof! Splat! Caned.
The Spears took a charge from the Nurgle block who got off a regen spell (which I let through assuming I was unlikely to get a wound anyway - hitting on 5s, wounding on 5s, saving on 2s...). Again the Spears broke them thanks to static res and the presence of the Empire General. For interests sake I placed them to take a charge from the Slannesh Warriors in the last turn but nothing much came from the combat (lost by one, passed the break check).
The Hellcannon Terrored the Reiksguard who rallied and eventually charged. They killed the Dwarf crew before being eaten by the Hellcannon and auto-broken. The Hellcannon was then fed 5 Archers to keep it busy in the last turn.
Despite "only" having the Slannesh Warriors and Sorcerer, the Chosen with Khorne boss, and the Hellcannon left, Derick won by around 300pts. Tough game, tough army. He'll be trying some other things out I'm sure (the Chosen were far too easy to avoid or bait). It's definitely a different pace of army and game from the Spider Riders but if anyone's earned the right to stack the odds a little I reckon it would be Derick :) I didn't play particularly well - really tired after the weekend and work is a bit rough but still an enjoyable game against an always entertaining opponent.
So, as per the plan from the previous post, next up - Lizardmen. Again :)
Monday, February 23, 2009
Saurus Are The New Black - FluffyCon Game Three (Carl Templeton)
Round three saw me striving mightily (and it turns out somewhat brainlessly) against the prophetically afore-mentioned Carl Templeton (see "FluffyCon Predictions" in a previous post). Turns out Carl was not Charles Black in masterful disguise (thank goodness!). Also turns out he wasn't using Dwarfs...
Carl had:
Scar-Vet with Nikes and a big stick
Scar-Vet BSB
Priest - Level 2
Priest - Level 2
2 units of Skinks
1 unit of Scouts
5 Chamelon Skinks
Big Fat Steg
3 Terradons
1 Salamander
2 blocks of Saurus
1 block of mini-tanks (Quetzl Saurus)
My most immediate thought was - "If I kill ALL of the chaff and am left with the Steg and 3 blocks I'm still likely to be royally screwed in points. This game will be a draw if I don't stuff things up too much".
And that's EXACTLY what happened (except I stuffed things up and it was still a draw - haha).
Highlights:
- Sighting a nearby and incredibly comfortable-looking tarvern my Crossbowmen staked their claim, holding the bastion for the Empire for the whole game and raining death on the stinky Lizards. Unfortunately it must have been happy hour as they could barely hit the side of a barn-sized Steg.
- The Cannon ineptly missed the Steg for three turns before fleeing from Mr Big Boots.
- Stranded for lack of a unit that would take his charge the Nike-wearing Scar-Vet General took a wound from a magic missile before making over 16 armour saves from shooting (including several armour-piercing handgunner shots). He survived the game, not only chasing off the Cannon and Wizard but also doing for the GW-Knights who managed to NOT hit him in a cunning overrun by 2 inches (having obliterated 3 Skinks that rather foolishly stood in their way). Bugger. I thought that was some decent luck on Carl's part :) (saving on 3s or 4s 16+ consecutive rolls)
- The Terradons were the first (and only) ones to eat hot crossbow death after their Skink screen vanished in a puff of Mortar-induced smoke and ash. The survivors fled through a Skink Priest who hitched up his skirts, failed to rally, and fled the board. The Terradons promptly failed their panic check for casualties and buggered off. Yay - the Mortar is safe for a few more turns! Karma realigned later in the game when the surivivors of this initial barrage exacted a gruesome and terribly unfriendly revenge on the Mortar crew - three Skinks more than enough to take out the wussy crewmen in the last turn.
- Having cleared the chaff I should have called it quits and organised a steady retreat. But of course I didn't do that did I? Instead I decided to try my luck with the Saurus. Like a proper idiot I charged all three blocks (W!T!F!!!???) - the most tragic decision of all was front-charging the Quetzl Saurus with the Reiksguard Knights. I don't know what I was thinking either!!! If I'd just backed off I could have kept them out of the game. Instead the Knights were very lucky to survive with a model remaining (and the Priest). Dumb dumb DUMB! Must repeat to myself next time: you are not a Brettonian. You are NOT a Brettonian!
- The Flagellents died a slow, painful and depressingly hopeless death to another block while my Swordsmen stupidly stood by and watched them die. Totally misused both units.
- A last turn charge by the Swordsmen and Empire General into the front of the Steg saw me win the combat by 2 but of course with the BSB right next to it the Steg passed it's Stubborn break check. Oh yeah, I remember now. Stegs are awesome.
In the end the difference in victory points was 136VPS - very nearly an 11-9 loss* I was a point-blank idiot charging with the Knights, allowing the Spearmen and BSB to get into combat with the Lizard BSB's Saurus block (broke and escaped but lost 2 banners... sigh), and almost completely wasting the Swordsmen. Oh man!!!
The Saurus were FRIGGIN HARD! Like Dwarfs on crack. Goodness knows what will happen in the new book when they have two attacks each with spears, a better armour save, and all this for less points!!! I feel ill just thinking about 12 Saurus running 6 wide with spears putting out 24 attacks. Yuck. Quetzl Saurus are doubly hard and given their slightly off-centre placement I was a twit for even trying it on with them. Bah. Wonderful hindsight.
So the end of day one saw me riding the crest of half battle points - 35/60. At this point I felt I would be very fortunate to maintain this record in day two. Post-tournament this is one of the big learning points for me (excuse my preempting of the outcome of my tournament experience) - if I'd managed to get 1/2 battle points (say 60-62/120) I would have finished in the top 10! Something to think about for next time, especially given the results of the next couple of games.
Next up: round four and... Lizards? Whoa... deja vu! Oi! TO! Is that right!?
* Forgot to mention - round one against Daemons I was 3VPs away from a 10-10 draw. Rargh!
Carl had:
Scar-Vet with Nikes and a big stick
Scar-Vet BSB
Priest - Level 2
Priest - Level 2
2 units of Skinks
1 unit of Scouts
5 Chamelon Skinks
Big Fat Steg
3 Terradons
1 Salamander
2 blocks of Saurus
1 block of mini-tanks (Quetzl Saurus)
My most immediate thought was - "If I kill ALL of the chaff and am left with the Steg and 3 blocks I'm still likely to be royally screwed in points. This game will be a draw if I don't stuff things up too much".
And that's EXACTLY what happened (except I stuffed things up and it was still a draw - haha).
Highlights:
- Sighting a nearby and incredibly comfortable-looking tarvern my Crossbowmen staked their claim, holding the bastion for the Empire for the whole game and raining death on the stinky Lizards. Unfortunately it must have been happy hour as they could barely hit the side of a barn-sized Steg.
- The Cannon ineptly missed the Steg for three turns before fleeing from Mr Big Boots.
- Stranded for lack of a unit that would take his charge the Nike-wearing Scar-Vet General took a wound from a magic missile before making over 16 armour saves from shooting (including several armour-piercing handgunner shots). He survived the game, not only chasing off the Cannon and Wizard but also doing for the GW-Knights who managed to NOT hit him in a cunning overrun by 2 inches (having obliterated 3 Skinks that rather foolishly stood in their way). Bugger. I thought that was some decent luck on Carl's part :) (saving on 3s or 4s 16+ consecutive rolls)
- The Terradons were the first (and only) ones to eat hot crossbow death after their Skink screen vanished in a puff of Mortar-induced smoke and ash. The survivors fled through a Skink Priest who hitched up his skirts, failed to rally, and fled the board. The Terradons promptly failed their panic check for casualties and buggered off. Yay - the Mortar is safe for a few more turns! Karma realigned later in the game when the surivivors of this initial barrage exacted a gruesome and terribly unfriendly revenge on the Mortar crew - three Skinks more than enough to take out the wussy crewmen in the last turn.
- Having cleared the chaff I should have called it quits and organised a steady retreat. But of course I didn't do that did I? Instead I decided to try my luck with the Saurus. Like a proper idiot I charged all three blocks (W!T!F!!!???) - the most tragic decision of all was front-charging the Quetzl Saurus with the Reiksguard Knights. I don't know what I was thinking either!!! If I'd just backed off I could have kept them out of the game. Instead the Knights were very lucky to survive with a model remaining (and the Priest). Dumb dumb DUMB! Must repeat to myself next time: you are not a Brettonian. You are NOT a Brettonian!
- The Flagellents died a slow, painful and depressingly hopeless death to another block while my Swordsmen stupidly stood by and watched them die. Totally misused both units.
- A last turn charge by the Swordsmen and Empire General into the front of the Steg saw me win the combat by 2 but of course with the BSB right next to it the Steg passed it's Stubborn break check. Oh yeah, I remember now. Stegs are awesome.
In the end the difference in victory points was 136VPS - very nearly an 11-9 loss* I was a point-blank idiot charging with the Knights, allowing the Spearmen and BSB to get into combat with the Lizard BSB's Saurus block (broke and escaped but lost 2 banners... sigh), and almost completely wasting the Swordsmen. Oh man!!!
The Saurus were FRIGGIN HARD! Like Dwarfs on crack. Goodness knows what will happen in the new book when they have two attacks each with spears, a better armour save, and all this for less points!!! I feel ill just thinking about 12 Saurus running 6 wide with spears putting out 24 attacks. Yuck. Quetzl Saurus are doubly hard and given their slightly off-centre placement I was a twit for even trying it on with them. Bah. Wonderful hindsight.
So the end of day one saw me riding the crest of half battle points - 35/60. At this point I felt I would be very fortunate to maintain this record in day two. Post-tournament this is one of the big learning points for me (excuse my preempting of the outcome of my tournament experience) - if I'd managed to get 1/2 battle points (say 60-62/120) I would have finished in the top 10! Something to think about for next time, especially given the results of the next couple of games.
Next up: round four and... Lizards? Whoa... deja vu! Oi! TO! Is that right!?
* Forgot to mention - round one against Daemons I was 3VPs away from a 10-10 draw. Rargh!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
The Property of Ones - FluffyCon Game Two (Mr Kitson)
See: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail39.html
Ok, we weren't drinking "Ones". But Ant sure was rolling a heck of a lot of them! In this case the bogus math theorem goes like this:
The SUCKitude of the army is directly proportional to the ROLLitude of the ONES.
Antony of course had his Dogs of War (NCM of +2) which I had previously smashed and drawn against in two playtesting games. I was looking forward to this match immensely as it was the first time we'd faced each other in a tournament. And he didn't have a Dark Elf Lord on Black Dragon which helped a bit too. Ant's list is in a previous post somewhere... The plan for the game was anchored around a handy piece of impassable terrain that would funnel his three blocks into the centre, onto my guns and waiting blocks and detachments. If I could knock out his (not inconsiderable) shooting base then my knights could hopefully smack his knights and come around behind the blocks to lend a hand. Just like the last game it almost worked out this way. Fortunately I didn't have the opportunity this time to fail any Fear checks :)
This game was ruled by my opponent's absolute and unerring ability to roll an increasingly ridiculous amount of '1s' on his shoddy and imminently retireable dice. In fact overall I'd say Antony's luck was pretty poor and I think this was the biggest contributing factor to what was an hilarious game for me but a bit of a wash-out for him. Examples include:
- "Look out, Sir!" on his General from a cannonball. Nopes. Splat.
- 9 shots with his Duellists = 2 hits. All of the misses were '1s'. Awesome.
- So many double ones for magic and combat... so many ones...
- I convinced him I would move my Reiksguard Knights so he could charge them with his knights (not that bad a plan when you have a 1+ save, Warbanner and Hatred thanks to the Warrior Priest - he knew it too). The Reiksguard moved into the face of an approaching (unbarded) knight unit who spoiled the grand plan by running off the board after losing two of their number to the Pistoliers.
- Nailed his baby cannon with my cannon on the first shot. Took his General in the next turn. Enfiladed his barded Knights in the next turn but in a twist of fate the champion (who I was required to wound seperately) survived and went on to take out the cannon and my wizard (curses!).
- the Mortar was AWESOME! Smashed Crossbowmen and Pikes all over the place. Absolutely devastating!
- Eventually Antony had no option but to charge some depleted Pikes (with a most regretful accompanying Wizard) into my Spearmen. The Pikes were shot on the way in by the handgunner detachment (supporting fire) and counter-charged by the Free Company detachment in the flank. The Pikes were soundly clubbed to death and escaped both units but then fled the solo charge of my Warrior Priest and ran into some nearby impassable terrain.
- In their haste to pursue the Spears hit the flank of the other Pike unit as they were attempting to finish off the Flagellents. The last Flagellent was killed off but immediately avenged as the Spears broke the foe, chasing them into the same impassable terrain that had killed off the recently deceased previous Pike unit. Loving the impassable terrain right now.
- with nothing left to do the Paymasters Bodyguard found itself surrounded by Swords in the front, Spears in the back and two detachments in the side. A last-minute charge by 6 Duellists failed to shift anything (lucky - my BSB had died to that wretched Burning Metal spell... grr...) although I managed to kill off the Paymaster in the process.
Somehow despite causing huge carnage I 'only' won the game 16-4 which was a bit disappointing. I'm guessing Ant was more disappointed than me though so we'll call it even shall we? :)
Luck played a part in the game (death of the General, Knight Champion surviving to kill off almost 300pts worth of stuff) but I felt Antony should have stacked both Knight units on one flank against my Cav to give himself more options and to avoid any cannon fire (there was a hill blocking a decent chunk of the battlefield). A couple of panic checks and some failed rally rolls later and I had one flank and his deployment zone under control. Pity I had to lose two characters on the way in though so good play on his part in that regard.
After two games I was now sitting on 25/40 battle points and was determined to end the day by staying above the 1/2 battle points mark. Next up, Lizardmen...
Ok, we weren't drinking "Ones". But Ant sure was rolling a heck of a lot of them! In this case the bogus math theorem goes like this:
The SUCKitude of the army is directly proportional to the ROLLitude of the ONES.
Antony of course had his Dogs of War (NCM of +2) which I had previously smashed and drawn against in two playtesting games. I was looking forward to this match immensely as it was the first time we'd faced each other in a tournament. And he didn't have a Dark Elf Lord on Black Dragon which helped a bit too. Ant's list is in a previous post somewhere... The plan for the game was anchored around a handy piece of impassable terrain that would funnel his three blocks into the centre, onto my guns and waiting blocks and detachments. If I could knock out his (not inconsiderable) shooting base then my knights could hopefully smack his knights and come around behind the blocks to lend a hand. Just like the last game it almost worked out this way. Fortunately I didn't have the opportunity this time to fail any Fear checks :)
This game was ruled by my opponent's absolute and unerring ability to roll an increasingly ridiculous amount of '1s' on his shoddy and imminently retireable dice. In fact overall I'd say Antony's luck was pretty poor and I think this was the biggest contributing factor to what was an hilarious game for me but a bit of a wash-out for him. Examples include:
- "Look out, Sir!" on his General from a cannonball. Nopes. Splat.
- 9 shots with his Duellists = 2 hits. All of the misses were '1s'. Awesome.
- So many double ones for magic and combat... so many ones...
- I convinced him I would move my Reiksguard Knights so he could charge them with his knights (not that bad a plan when you have a 1+ save, Warbanner and Hatred thanks to the Warrior Priest - he knew it too). The Reiksguard moved into the face of an approaching (unbarded) knight unit who spoiled the grand plan by running off the board after losing two of their number to the Pistoliers.
- Nailed his baby cannon with my cannon on the first shot. Took his General in the next turn. Enfiladed his barded Knights in the next turn but in a twist of fate the champion (who I was required to wound seperately) survived and went on to take out the cannon and my wizard (curses!).
- the Mortar was AWESOME! Smashed Crossbowmen and Pikes all over the place. Absolutely devastating!
- Eventually Antony had no option but to charge some depleted Pikes (with a most regretful accompanying Wizard) into my Spearmen. The Pikes were shot on the way in by the handgunner detachment (supporting fire) and counter-charged by the Free Company detachment in the flank. The Pikes were soundly clubbed to death and escaped both units but then fled the solo charge of my Warrior Priest and ran into some nearby impassable terrain.
- In their haste to pursue the Spears hit the flank of the other Pike unit as they were attempting to finish off the Flagellents. The last Flagellent was killed off but immediately avenged as the Spears broke the foe, chasing them into the same impassable terrain that had killed off the recently deceased previous Pike unit. Loving the impassable terrain right now.
- with nothing left to do the Paymasters Bodyguard found itself surrounded by Swords in the front, Spears in the back and two detachments in the side. A last-minute charge by 6 Duellists failed to shift anything (lucky - my BSB had died to that wretched Burning Metal spell... grr...) although I managed to kill off the Paymaster in the process.
Somehow despite causing huge carnage I 'only' won the game 16-4 which was a bit disappointing. I'm guessing Ant was more disappointed than me though so we'll call it even shall we? :)
Luck played a part in the game (death of the General, Knight Champion surviving to kill off almost 300pts worth of stuff) but I felt Antony should have stacked both Knight units on one flank against my Cav to give himself more options and to avoid any cannon fire (there was a hill blocking a decent chunk of the battlefield). A couple of panic checks and some failed rally rolls later and I had one flank and his deployment zone under control. Pity I had to lose two characters on the way in though so good play on his part in that regard.
After two games I was now sitting on 25/40 battle points and was determined to end the day by staying above the 1/2 battle points mark. Next up, Lizardmen...
Too Early For This Much Regen - FluffyCon Game One (Alistair Dennison)
Seeing my opponent's army on the tabletop I was overjoyed (... I'm not sure whether I'm being sarcastic here either...) to find myself facing a mono-god Nurgle Daemon list. I was quite chuffed about this (after a fashion) because I'd spent some time playtesting against Aaron's Nurgle Daemons and come away with some good results. This list looked surprisingly similar.
It wasn't.
I don't know who or what I managed to offend by drawing this army in round one but I knew with a glance at the army list I was looking at two options: a draw or a minor loss. It's weirdly satisfying knowing how accurate this ended up :)
The crucial (crucial) difference between Aaron's list and this one was the inclusion of an additional Herald. Roughly, here's the list:
- Herald General on Palanquin, L1 Sorcerer, Slime Trail, something else (I think something combat-related - don't know really. I avoided the unit containing this bloke like... the plague).
- Herald on Palanquin (the only way to travel), L1 Sorcerer, something that made my guys strike last? Shooty template of slimey doom.
- Herald with Shooty template of slimey doom.
- 3 big blocks of Plaguebearers
- 3 Beasts
- 2 units of 3 Nurglings
- 2 units of 5 Furies
I figured I could probably take the Furies and one of the Nurgling units but the rest was a great issue. Oddly enough I settled on trying for the Beasts (go figure!) and 1/2 a Nurgle block with maybe (maybe!) a charge onto something depleted late in the game. This is exactly what happened. Almost.
Highlights/LOWlights:
The Reiksguard and Priest charged the Beasts and did no wounds. The Beasts did no wounds back. Knights win by 1 (Warbanner). Beasts lose wounds to combat res. Rinse and repeat that scenario for 3 more player turns and the Beasts died.
Took out some Nurglings although it took some time to accomplish it. GW-Knights eventually did the job.
All of my shooting took one of the Plaguebearer blocks down to 4 models (a heck of an achievement!) and the Herald. While the Flagellents held off another one (and the rest of my army kept running away from the remaining block led by the Nurgle General) my Swordsmen (led by my General), fully ranked and ready to splatter the last of the depleted block, prepared for the charge. At this time I felt it was most appropriate that I fail a Fear check. Net result - last of the Flagellents die and the Swordmen are charged by the depleted block and a full strength block in the front and some more Nurglings in the back. Swordsmen die a messy death. I lose the game.
Loss 11-9.
Had the charge of the Swordsmen gone off we both agreed the game would have been (obviously) quite different. I was pretty gutted about the failed Fear check but the cookie doth crumble thusly so I just tried really hard to get over it and not sulk :) Happy with the result though considering the duff roll.
Alistair was a great opponent - coming up from Christchurch for the tournament gets a double thumbs up from me that's for sure! His army received a +1 Nett Comp modifier. I felt the extra Herald was a bit much but as Aaron and I discussed it's hard to see what else you could take instead without making it just as hard. Interestingly enough Philfy's Daemons scored him a 'soft card' (get a high enough Nett Comp Modifier - at least +4 I think - and you get a one use reroll thing) and he decided the best way to do this was to play with 1950pts instead of 2000pts. Created some discussion at dinner on Saturday night as those present theorised the possibility of taking a tiny number of insanely hard models and some teeny units worth say 1000pts (and getting a great comp score by 'handicapping' yourself) thereby automatically denying your opponent the ability to get 1000VPs worth of your army (because you don't have it on the table to start with!). Anyway, Al was a great sport and somewhat apologetic. He mourned the failed Fear check almost as much as I did and felt my pain.
Hopefully no more Daemons this weekend...
It wasn't.
I don't know who or what I managed to offend by drawing this army in round one but I knew with a glance at the army list I was looking at two options: a draw or a minor loss. It's weirdly satisfying knowing how accurate this ended up :)
The crucial (crucial) difference between Aaron's list and this one was the inclusion of an additional Herald. Roughly, here's the list:
- Herald General on Palanquin, L1 Sorcerer, Slime Trail, something else (I think something combat-related - don't know really. I avoided the unit containing this bloke like... the plague).
- Herald on Palanquin (the only way to travel), L1 Sorcerer, something that made my guys strike last? Shooty template of slimey doom.
- Herald with Shooty template of slimey doom.
- 3 big blocks of Plaguebearers
- 3 Beasts
- 2 units of 3 Nurglings
- 2 units of 5 Furies
I figured I could probably take the Furies and one of the Nurgling units but the rest was a great issue. Oddly enough I settled on trying for the Beasts (go figure!) and 1/2 a Nurgle block with maybe (maybe!) a charge onto something depleted late in the game. This is exactly what happened. Almost.
Highlights/LOWlights:
The Reiksguard and Priest charged the Beasts and did no wounds. The Beasts did no wounds back. Knights win by 1 (Warbanner). Beasts lose wounds to combat res. Rinse and repeat that scenario for 3 more player turns and the Beasts died.
Took out some Nurglings although it took some time to accomplish it. GW-Knights eventually did the job.
All of my shooting took one of the Plaguebearer blocks down to 4 models (a heck of an achievement!) and the Herald. While the Flagellents held off another one (and the rest of my army kept running away from the remaining block led by the Nurgle General) my Swordsmen (led by my General), fully ranked and ready to splatter the last of the depleted block, prepared for the charge. At this time I felt it was most appropriate that I fail a Fear check. Net result - last of the Flagellents die and the Swordmen are charged by the depleted block and a full strength block in the front and some more Nurglings in the back. Swordsmen die a messy death. I lose the game.
Loss 11-9.
Had the charge of the Swordsmen gone off we both agreed the game would have been (obviously) quite different. I was pretty gutted about the failed Fear check but the cookie doth crumble thusly so I just tried really hard to get over it and not sulk :) Happy with the result though considering the duff roll.
Alistair was a great opponent - coming up from Christchurch for the tournament gets a double thumbs up from me that's for sure! His army received a +1 Nett Comp modifier. I felt the extra Herald was a bit much but as Aaron and I discussed it's hard to see what else you could take instead without making it just as hard. Interestingly enough Philfy's Daemons scored him a 'soft card' (get a high enough Nett Comp Modifier - at least +4 I think - and you get a one use reroll thing) and he decided the best way to do this was to play with 1950pts instead of 2000pts. Created some discussion at dinner on Saturday night as those present theorised the possibility of taking a tiny number of insanely hard models and some teeny units worth say 1000pts (and getting a great comp score by 'handicapping' yourself) thereby automatically denying your opponent the ability to get 1000VPs worth of your army (because you don't have it on the table to start with!). Anyway, Al was a great sport and somewhat apologetic. He mourned the failed Fear check almost as much as I did and felt my pain.
Hopefully no more Daemons this weekend...
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Mass post-FluffyCon posting incoming... Introductory comments
It's done. FluffyCon is over and I'm scrambling over my thoughts (and written notes) hoping I don't start forgetting all the great moments and the heartbreak (although the heartbreak seems somehow to be much easier to remember...).
There's lots to talk about over the next series of posts: breakdowns of each of the games of course, a breakdown of the army and how it went overall, a summary (a long, LONG summary) of where I went wrong, a discussion on comp (argh! I know - you can skip that one if you like) and how I felt it applied to FluffyCon, and some thoughts on the tournament system itself and whether it achieved it's aims.
So, an introduction...
If you'd read much of the rest of this blog you would be aware that I've been preparing for a tournament called FluffyCon. The "focus" of this event (in my own eyes at least) was to encourage players to take "softer than normal" lists into a tournament environment. The TO - Big Nick - (after a wide and plentiful consultation) ensured the chance of this actually happening by imposing a set of restrictions upon the army lists. These ranged from limiting the number of power and dispel dice to limiting the amount of shooting to only being allowed one Terror-causing unit/thing (and no Dragons, Greater Daemons et al thank-you very much!). As such the armies one would expect to face (note italics) would be softer than the norm, right?
Right.
Comp-action aside there was the fairly usual tournament standard painting (TO appraised, players judging in a Beauty Pageant) and sports (out of five for each round, pick your fave for Best Sports). One thing I really liked was that the Sports score, Beauty Pageant vote and Best Sports vote were all stapled together (in order of submission) and presented to each player when they registered on arrival. A bit less handing-out required of the TO which is handy! Nick had the usual issues with some people not getting scores in on time (or promptly!) but on the whole the event ran very smoothly, everyone was well-behaved, and a good time was had by all. After all is said and done it is now up to the individual players to reflect on their own games but also on the success of the tournament as a whole. Was FluffyCon a success? Did the great social experiment in army composition bear fruit?
More posts to follow on this and many other topics - stay tuned!
There's lots to talk about over the next series of posts: breakdowns of each of the games of course, a breakdown of the army and how it went overall, a summary (a long, LONG summary) of where I went wrong, a discussion on comp (argh! I know - you can skip that one if you like) and how I felt it applied to FluffyCon, and some thoughts on the tournament system itself and whether it achieved it's aims.
So, an introduction...
If you'd read much of the rest of this blog you would be aware that I've been preparing for a tournament called FluffyCon. The "focus" of this event (in my own eyes at least) was to encourage players to take "softer than normal" lists into a tournament environment. The TO - Big Nick - (after a wide and plentiful consultation) ensured the chance of this actually happening by imposing a set of restrictions upon the army lists. These ranged from limiting the number of power and dispel dice to limiting the amount of shooting to only being allowed one Terror-causing unit/thing (and no Dragons, Greater Daemons et al thank-you very much!). As such the armies one would expect to face (note italics) would be softer than the norm, right?
Right.
Comp-action aside there was the fairly usual tournament standard painting (TO appraised, players judging in a Beauty Pageant) and sports (out of five for each round, pick your fave for Best Sports). One thing I really liked was that the Sports score, Beauty Pageant vote and Best Sports vote were all stapled together (in order of submission) and presented to each player when they registered on arrival. A bit less handing-out required of the TO which is handy! Nick had the usual issues with some people not getting scores in on time (or promptly!) but on the whole the event ran very smoothly, everyone was well-behaved, and a good time was had by all. After all is said and done it is now up to the individual players to reflect on their own games but also on the success of the tournament as a whole. Was FluffyCon a success? Did the great social experiment in army composition bear fruit?
More posts to follow on this and many other topics - stay tuned!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Almost there...
Two more sleeps. One more day of work. Roll on the weekend!
Pistoliers finished. Wizard based. All models magnetised. Movement trays finished. Army finished. Organised with wife to use breakfast tray for the ultimate in table-to-table army transportation (although nothing beats Asian Nick's use of Burger King trays last year = gold).
Extra lists printed. Dice polished. New tape measure.
Carpooling organised. Then disorganised and plans changed.
Dinner with the gang on Saturday night organised. Fingers-crossed Newmarket doesn't experience ANOTHER power cut (Auckland - the shambolic epitomy of national embarassment. Or is that Transpower?).
Only one thing left to do:
... lay out the Ji-Dave shirt... finish what I began last year - the complete, total and final destruction and utter annihilation of the ADC.
:)
All organisation aside I've been involved in a discussion on the City Guard forums that started with trash-talk (Pommy Dave won OTT smashing Philfy in the process. JI-DAVE!) post-OTT but ended being a meandering dialogue encompassing comp (always with the comp threads...), reflection on my "army-whoring" period (Lizards, Bretts etc), and a comparison and breakdown of what constitutes a "big flying nasty" (a flying, Terror-causing, rank-breaking piece of badness - my definition). The last bit mostly came up because Josh (TK Josh) is now taking Orcs led by a Boss on Wyvern (which may have drawn some disparaging remarks from me at some point).
Wild claims were also made about me using the awful Altar/Stank combination - these were quickly rebutted and refuted.
A couple of other people chimed in, most notably Simon with one concise comment (and I quote, "What a joke"). What is clear to me is that a FluffyCon-esque tournaments are NOT for everyone - fair enough. I think each to his own - if someone was running and promoting a no-holds-barred cheesefest event I'd be one of the last to show even a remote level of interest. I'm keen to see what happens post-FC with the middle-of-the-road events later in the year.
And if people want to be cheesey bastards then? Well, that's why we have 40k! :)
Pistoliers finished. Wizard based. All models magnetised. Movement trays finished. Army finished. Organised with wife to use breakfast tray for the ultimate in table-to-table army transportation (although nothing beats Asian Nick's use of Burger King trays last year = gold).
Extra lists printed. Dice polished. New tape measure.
Carpooling organised. Then disorganised and plans changed.
Dinner with the gang on Saturday night organised. Fingers-crossed Newmarket doesn't experience ANOTHER power cut (Auckland - the shambolic epitomy of national embarassment. Or is that Transpower?).
Only one thing left to do:
... lay out the Ji-Dave shirt... finish what I began last year - the complete, total and final destruction and utter annihilation of the ADC.
:)
All organisation aside I've been involved in a discussion on the City Guard forums that started with trash-talk (Pommy Dave won OTT smashing Philfy in the process. JI-DAVE!) post-OTT but ended being a meandering dialogue encompassing comp (always with the comp threads...), reflection on my "army-whoring" period (Lizards, Bretts etc), and a comparison and breakdown of what constitutes a "big flying nasty" (a flying, Terror-causing, rank-breaking piece of badness - my definition). The last bit mostly came up because Josh (TK Josh) is now taking Orcs led by a Boss on Wyvern (which may have drawn some disparaging remarks from me at some point).
Wild claims were also made about me using the awful Altar/Stank combination - these were quickly rebutted and refuted.
A couple of other people chimed in, most notably Simon with one concise comment (and I quote, "What a joke"). What is clear to me is that a FluffyCon-esque tournaments are NOT for everyone - fair enough. I think each to his own - if someone was running and promoting a no-holds-barred cheesefest event I'd be one of the last to show even a remote level of interest. I'm keen to see what happens post-FC with the middle-of-the-road events later in the year.
And if people want to be cheesey bastards then? Well, that's why we have 40k! :)
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Such anticipation!
4 days to go till the FluffyCon which will be held as part of Battle Cry at the ASB Stadium this weekend. That's:
- 4 days of work
- 5 Pistoliers (1/2 done - Brown ink for the win!)
- one Wizard's base
... until I'm ready to play.
I'm not so jaded a tournament veteran that I'm over the excitement of the buildup to a tournament. Pre-tourney trash-talk ("Phil-baiting") is one of my favourite pasttimes; players post on forums with increasing frequency debating who is going to place/win/lose/get the wooden spoon; and I find myself reviewing my army list (and rereading blog entries on playtesting battles) over and over, desperately trying to scratch together a modicum of a strategic ideal. Trent's School Lessons are getting a thorough reread, as is every IF article and any scrap of Warhammer-related tactical doctrine, information or theory on the 'net.
I'm driving my wife mad as I prowl around the house, fidgety and nervous, barely able to contain a growing excitement and enthusiasm for what I expect to be a simply outstanding weekend of gaming.
I've been to enough tournaments (both Warhammer and 40k) to know how it works. For me it's all about preparation. Have you ever watched a tennis game on TV and in the breaks the players have a bite of a banana, drink some Powerade (or equivalent) and chase that down with a sip of water. That's me at a tournament. For the life of me I can't see how anyone could down a beer (or pineapple and vodka) or five during a tournament and play straight. I'm as happy as the next man to sit back and roll dice with pizza in one hand and a Woodstock (best... drink... ever) in the other in a casual game on a Friday night, but in a tournament I'm just too... tense. A good kind of tense - fierce and determined and active and aware.
I've got what I consider to be some great mates coming along to play too. A Dogs Breakfast (the DogCon series) has helped me evaluate my priorities for this weekend. I want to win. I want to do well. But there's an excellent opportunity to spend quality time with a great bunch of guys and really, that's now the priority. Win or lose (and by the way, I say this now... Feel free to quote my happy-go-lucky attitude back to me if I get smashed) I'm just happy to play the game, spend time with friends, share some laughs, talk some more crap... True Warhammer. Real Warhammer.
Bloody great game isn't it?!
So, send-up placement predictions aside, how do I really think I'll go?
Well... I've set myself the goal of a Top Five finish. This is pretty huge (plan B is a Top Ten finish) considering the players that are going to be there and, to a degree, the army I'll be using. I managed 8th at Fields of Blood in a similar-sized field (albeit a field with more dirt than you could shake a skink at) but the Lizards felt like a more capable army. No, that's not the right word - Empire are damn capable. Maybe it's the feeling that the Lizards could generate a more rapid or sudden change on the game. I don't know. A Top Five goal puts me right up against some very serious players - not only that I'll have to beat them! Tony (Vod) for example, I've yet to beat. That'll be a tough game if it happens.
Maybe I'm over-reaching? I think it's important to go in with a goal and mindset though and try hard to make it happen. Not to be a dick. Not to sulk and cry if it doesn't all come together. But go in and (somewhat) realistically choose a place or a bracket of placement that you feel will push you and extend you as a player. Set the bar and try and reach it. I think most players do this unconsciously but the conscious decision has a greater impact on your overall play. Trent mentioned in one of the Lessons about tracking your score, in the game and across games, setting mini-goals (how many points do I need in this game, for example) based on army matchups. I think one of the big challenges I'll be facing is looking carefully at my opponent (and their army) and accurately gauging my chances of a big/medium/minor win. Or even a draw - looking hard at their list, considering my strengths, and maybe playing for a draw against a really hard army (not that anyone is taking a HARD list of course - this is still FluffyCon!).
This is a bit of a ramble now... bah. Well what the hell... it's my blog. I'll write whatever I want :)
- 4 days of work
- 5 Pistoliers (1/2 done - Brown ink for the win!)
- one Wizard's base
... until I'm ready to play.
I'm not so jaded a tournament veteran that I'm over the excitement of the buildup to a tournament. Pre-tourney trash-talk ("Phil-baiting") is one of my favourite pasttimes; players post on forums with increasing frequency debating who is going to place/win/lose/get the wooden spoon; and I find myself reviewing my army list (and rereading blog entries on playtesting battles) over and over, desperately trying to scratch together a modicum of a strategic ideal. Trent's School Lessons are getting a thorough reread, as is every IF article and any scrap of Warhammer-related tactical doctrine, information or theory on the 'net.
I'm driving my wife mad as I prowl around the house, fidgety and nervous, barely able to contain a growing excitement and enthusiasm for what I expect to be a simply outstanding weekend of gaming.
I've been to enough tournaments (both Warhammer and 40k) to know how it works. For me it's all about preparation. Have you ever watched a tennis game on TV and in the breaks the players have a bite of a banana, drink some Powerade (or equivalent) and chase that down with a sip of water. That's me at a tournament. For the life of me I can't see how anyone could down a beer (or pineapple and vodka) or five during a tournament and play straight. I'm as happy as the next man to sit back and roll dice with pizza in one hand and a Woodstock (best... drink... ever) in the other in a casual game on a Friday night, but in a tournament I'm just too... tense. A good kind of tense - fierce and determined and active and aware.
I've got what I consider to be some great mates coming along to play too. A Dogs Breakfast (the DogCon series) has helped me evaluate my priorities for this weekend. I want to win. I want to do well. But there's an excellent opportunity to spend quality time with a great bunch of guys and really, that's now the priority. Win or lose (and by the way, I say this now... Feel free to quote my happy-go-lucky attitude back to me if I get smashed) I'm just happy to play the game, spend time with friends, share some laughs, talk some more crap... True Warhammer. Real Warhammer.
Bloody great game isn't it?!
So, send-up placement predictions aside, how do I really think I'll go?
Well... I've set myself the goal of a Top Five finish. This is pretty huge (plan B is a Top Ten finish) considering the players that are going to be there and, to a degree, the army I'll be using. I managed 8th at Fields of Blood in a similar-sized field (albeit a field with more dirt than you could shake a skink at) but the Lizards felt like a more capable army. No, that's not the right word - Empire are damn capable. Maybe it's the feeling that the Lizards could generate a more rapid or sudden change on the game. I don't know. A Top Five goal puts me right up against some very serious players - not only that I'll have to beat them! Tony (Vod) for example, I've yet to beat. That'll be a tough game if it happens.
Maybe I'm over-reaching? I think it's important to go in with a goal and mindset though and try hard to make it happen. Not to be a dick. Not to sulk and cry if it doesn't all come together. But go in and (somewhat) realistically choose a place or a bracket of placement that you feel will push you and extend you as a player. Set the bar and try and reach it. I think most players do this unconsciously but the conscious decision has a greater impact on your overall play. Trent mentioned in one of the Lessons about tracking your score, in the game and across games, setting mini-goals (how many points do I need in this game, for example) based on army matchups. I think one of the big challenges I'll be facing is looking carefully at my opponent (and their army) and accurately gauging my chances of a big/medium/minor win. Or even a draw - looking hard at their list, considering my strengths, and maybe playing for a draw against a really hard army (not that anyone is taking a HARD list of course - this is still FluffyCon!).
This is a bit of a ramble now... bah. Well what the hell... it's my blog. I'll write whatever I want :)
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
FluffyCon predictions
Looks like there are 37 players involved in FluffyCon - for NZ that's huge! Here are my predictions for the top 10 (the player list is somewhere on the City Guard forums).
16th - as try-hard wannabe top Dave I will waaaaay overreach in this event and my battle scores will alternately skyrocket and plummet as the dice see fit - my opponent's skill level will have absolutely NO impact on the game at all. All my theories about using a ld8 army will fly out the window on at least two occasions as the entire force flees the board. I'll miss round 3 while I'm lynched by engineering students (see below). I'll beat the crap out of Philfy's army when we draw each other accidentally on purpose due to Bignic's supposedly random draw philosophy. Beating Phil will (once again) be the highlight of my tournament. Phil will then be forced to stop posting on the WAU forums having lost all credibility with his so-called followers. I'll play Carl (see below) in round 1 and the thrashing I get in that game will convince me to go back to playing Dwarfs. Or 40k. Either way its boring as hell right?
10th - Derick Williams. Derick will have a roaring good time at this tournament as his army finally finds it's element beating on armies that are actually SOFTER than his! The only thing that will stop Derick placing 1st (or in fact, higher than 10th) is that his Shaman will miscast and explode himself in every game on turn 1, his Doom Diver will kill itself off too and he will forget his strike units are frenzied either failing panic checks he never had to take and fleeing off the board, or forgetting his extra attac in combat. Derick will beat Scott (again) without having to resort to dirty tactics and dodgy play. Good job Scott - you suck.
9th - Phil Wu the Jolly Asian will show Phil C the Daemon-loving Star Dragon wannabe that High Elves really are good even without a crutch. Shocking I know. 1/2 an hour into round 1 Phil's opponent will knock him unconscious because he won't stop bemoaning the fact he's using such soft toughness 3, 5+ armour save troops. A random City Guard forum member will pass by and curb stomp Phil while he's in lala-land because we are all heartily sick of him going on and on about his poor toughness 3 models. Harden the hell up, take a man up pill, drink some concrete, get in the chilly bin - try using troops that are toughness, have 5+ armour, DON'T have ASF (or chariots), can't hit a barn door at 5 paces and run away at the slightest whiff of a crippled Gnoblar.
8th - Reid Pittams will look a "low" top ten in the eye having won Orktoberfest but crashed at DogCon. Reid will threaten Bignic with a Brettonian Realm Knight to the throat if a round starts anytime but exactly on time (it's a DogCon thing). Reid will draw a bye in round 3 but rather than risk playing Nick he will interrupt the game on the table next to him and persuade both players to play a quick 4000pts of them vs 2000pts of him. Reid will score a 20-0 massacre in this game. His opponents will have been Phil Petry and Ray, further cementing what we all know - Dark Elves are teh suck.
7th - Nick Irvine, relying as always on his captaincy of soft scoring will cane everyone with top sports/comp and painting scores but will drop the ball and lose every game he plays. He will play me in round 2 as destiny finally catches up with him. I will smash him. After the game he will get his lethally dangerous engineering geek buddies to lynch me outside (explaining my absence in round 3).
6th - Nick Bucky. Despite being the TO and only playing as the ghost for bye-busters Ancient and Venerable Nick will still get enough battle points to place highly. As TO he will rig his own soft scores in order to place in the top 10. Nick Irvine could learn a thing or to from this sort of thinking - why be nice when you can cheat?
5th - Robbed of his safety blanket (read: Black Dragon-riding cheese-monkey Dark Elf Lord) Antony will break his opponent's resolve with a continuous and unrelenting whinge about how much Pikes suck (they don't), how soft his characters are (after he's vapourised your General with magic), and how hard it is to use Dogs of War without 9 Maneaters with Handguns. Antony will play Dave in round 5 and lose because frankly, without a Black Dragon on his side, he's not as good as Dave. Any Dave in fact. I will beat Antony in round 4 as he relives the horror of his first practice game against me and capitulates in turn 5.
4th - Tony Vodanovich. Similar to Antony, Dirty bloody Vod will find using an army without a hideous amount of leadership-reducing, magic-molesting, ward-saving, immune-to-psychology scaring, multi Flesh Hound wielding Daemons is much harder than everyone else is making it look. Not having a Greater Daemon of Brokenness to fall back on will cause him to spiral out of control in round 2 where he will be found under a table whimpering quietly and whispering prayers to Slannesh, Khorne or Karen (who must surely be one of the gods of chaos at this particular time). Unless Tony actually takes Daemons in which case we're all probably royally screwed.
3rd - Glen Tibbles. Enraged by last years abismal (not Abyssal) performance at Fields Glen will field the most broken fluffy list possible. Opponents will be run into the ground, horrified that he somehow managed to bribe the judges and talk his way into the tournament using a list that makes Limburger look (and smell) attractive. Glen will play Antony on day 2 and lose (again). His Heirophant will be assassinated (regardless of whether he's taken Tomb Kings or not). I will stand on the side-lines and cheer him on - Go Team!
2nd - Bouyed by his overwhelming confidence after a stunning (fortunate) series of games at the NZ Masters (dodging bullets) Dave Grant will smash 1/2 his opponents with his awful Wood Elf army. He'll have 2 close games and lose another due to rampant over-confidence with Waywatchers vis a vis being ninjas in combat (they are not). I will stand on the side-lines and cheer on a fellow Dave while Phil sheds a silent and bitter tear as he reflects on the lost cause that is (and always was) the ADC.
1st - Carl Templeton. No one seems to know this guy so I'm picking you'll all get put in your place by a complete unknown who will school everyone with unforeseen moves and skills that will amaze and astound. Carl will be using a Dwarf army with a single Master Engineer as the general (and no other characters) and the rest of the army will be Warrior blocks of unusual sizes - all with full command. The Horde Dwarfs will (slowly) crush all before them with a series of 20-0 wins against opponents who are completely unprepared for his incredible skills. We will ask for his autograph after the games. At the prize ceremony Carl will whip off his disguise to reveal he is actually Charles Black under cover, returned from beyond the Tasman to remind us all he won a NZGT in the distant past. NZers everywhere will bow their heads in shame and we will be ridiculed on forums across the world. Charles will win an enormous killy sword and won't be able to get it through customs. Rubber gloves will be involved and the Kiwis will have the last laugh at his expense.
This prediction thing is EASY!
16th - as try-hard wannabe top Dave I will waaaaay overreach in this event and my battle scores will alternately skyrocket and plummet as the dice see fit - my opponent's skill level will have absolutely NO impact on the game at all. All my theories about using a ld8 army will fly out the window on at least two occasions as the entire force flees the board. I'll miss round 3 while I'm lynched by engineering students (see below). I'll beat the crap out of Philfy's army when we draw each other accidentally on purpose due to Bignic's supposedly random draw philosophy. Beating Phil will (once again) be the highlight of my tournament. Phil will then be forced to stop posting on the WAU forums having lost all credibility with his so-called followers. I'll play Carl (see below) in round 1 and the thrashing I get in that game will convince me to go back to playing Dwarfs. Or 40k. Either way its boring as hell right?
10th - Derick Williams. Derick will have a roaring good time at this tournament as his army finally finds it's element beating on armies that are actually SOFTER than his! The only thing that will stop Derick placing 1st (or in fact, higher than 10th) is that his Shaman will miscast and explode himself in every game on turn 1, his Doom Diver will kill itself off too and he will forget his strike units are frenzied either failing panic checks he never had to take and fleeing off the board, or forgetting his extra attac in combat. Derick will beat Scott (again) without having to resort to dirty tactics and dodgy play. Good job Scott - you suck.
9th - Phil Wu the Jolly Asian will show Phil C the Daemon-loving Star Dragon wannabe that High Elves really are good even without a crutch. Shocking I know. 1/2 an hour into round 1 Phil's opponent will knock him unconscious because he won't stop bemoaning the fact he's using such soft toughness 3, 5+ armour save troops. A random City Guard forum member will pass by and curb stomp Phil while he's in lala-land because we are all heartily sick of him going on and on about his poor toughness 3 models. Harden the hell up, take a man up pill, drink some concrete, get in the chilly bin - try using troops that are toughness, have 5+ armour, DON'T have ASF (or chariots), can't hit a barn door at 5 paces and run away at the slightest whiff of a crippled Gnoblar.
8th - Reid Pittams will look a "low" top ten in the eye having won Orktoberfest but crashed at DogCon. Reid will threaten Bignic with a Brettonian Realm Knight to the throat if a round starts anytime but exactly on time (it's a DogCon thing). Reid will draw a bye in round 3 but rather than risk playing Nick he will interrupt the game on the table next to him and persuade both players to play a quick 4000pts of them vs 2000pts of him. Reid will score a 20-0 massacre in this game. His opponents will have been Phil Petry and Ray, further cementing what we all know - Dark Elves are teh suck.
7th - Nick Irvine, relying as always on his captaincy of soft scoring will cane everyone with top sports/comp and painting scores but will drop the ball and lose every game he plays. He will play me in round 2 as destiny finally catches up with him. I will smash him. After the game he will get his lethally dangerous engineering geek buddies to lynch me outside (explaining my absence in round 3).
6th - Nick Bucky. Despite being the TO and only playing as the ghost for bye-busters Ancient and Venerable Nick will still get enough battle points to place highly. As TO he will rig his own soft scores in order to place in the top 10. Nick Irvine could learn a thing or to from this sort of thinking - why be nice when you can cheat?
5th - Robbed of his safety blanket (read: Black Dragon-riding cheese-monkey Dark Elf Lord) Antony will break his opponent's resolve with a continuous and unrelenting whinge about how much Pikes suck (they don't), how soft his characters are (after he's vapourised your General with magic), and how hard it is to use Dogs of War without 9 Maneaters with Handguns. Antony will play Dave in round 5 and lose because frankly, without a Black Dragon on his side, he's not as good as Dave. Any Dave in fact. I will beat Antony in round 4 as he relives the horror of his first practice game against me and capitulates in turn 5.
4th - Tony Vodanovich. Similar to Antony, Dirty bloody Vod will find using an army without a hideous amount of leadership-reducing, magic-molesting, ward-saving, immune-to-psychology scaring, multi Flesh Hound wielding Daemons is much harder than everyone else is making it look. Not having a Greater Daemon of Brokenness to fall back on will cause him to spiral out of control in round 2 where he will be found under a table whimpering quietly and whispering prayers to Slannesh, Khorne or Karen (who must surely be one of the gods of chaos at this particular time). Unless Tony actually takes Daemons in which case we're all probably royally screwed.
3rd - Glen Tibbles. Enraged by last years abismal (not Abyssal) performance at Fields Glen will field the most broken fluffy list possible. Opponents will be run into the ground, horrified that he somehow managed to bribe the judges and talk his way into the tournament using a list that makes Limburger look (and smell) attractive. Glen will play Antony on day 2 and lose (again). His Heirophant will be assassinated (regardless of whether he's taken Tomb Kings or not). I will stand on the side-lines and cheer him on - Go Team!
2nd - Bouyed by his overwhelming confidence after a stunning (fortunate) series of games at the NZ Masters (dodging bullets) Dave Grant will smash 1/2 his opponents with his awful Wood Elf army. He'll have 2 close games and lose another due to rampant over-confidence with Waywatchers vis a vis being ninjas in combat (they are not). I will stand on the side-lines and cheer on a fellow Dave while Phil sheds a silent and bitter tear as he reflects on the lost cause that is (and always was) the ADC.
1st - Carl Templeton. No one seems to know this guy so I'm picking you'll all get put in your place by a complete unknown who will school everyone with unforeseen moves and skills that will amaze and astound. Carl will be using a Dwarf army with a single Master Engineer as the general (and no other characters) and the rest of the army will be Warrior blocks of unusual sizes - all with full command. The Horde Dwarfs will (slowly) crush all before them with a series of 20-0 wins against opponents who are completely unprepared for his incredible skills. We will ask for his autograph after the games. At the prize ceremony Carl will whip off his disguise to reveal he is actually Charles Black under cover, returned from beyond the Tasman to remind us all he won a NZGT in the distant past. NZers everywhere will bow their heads in shame and we will be ridiculed on forums across the world. Charles will win an enormous killy sword and won't be able to get it through customs. Rubber gloves will be involved and the Kiwis will have the last laugh at his expense.
This prediction thing is EASY!
Monday, February 2, 2009
"May the army with the most legs win" - final FluffyCon playtest game
Or words to that effect is Derick's traditional "good luck" to his opponent when using his Spider Riders :)
Well, this post sees the last in a surprisingly long (and fruitful) series of game playtesting my recently acquired Empire army for the FluffyCon tournament to be held in Auckland in 3 weeks. This will likely be my last post for a similar amount of time as I'm back to work (and working my butt off) which means no more night games, no weekend time... no life. Hopefully the investment I've made in game terms reaps a decent reward at the tournament but essentially, win or lose, I've enjoyed the fluffy games immensely and I get the feeling the majority of my opponents have too. It's inspired me, in my look at a 2250pt Empire force to use at other tournaments this year (and early next year... DogCon 2010 has now become the long-term goal), to try hard to keep with a fluffy feel.
Anyway, the game...
Key to this battle was a house/building almost in the middle of the table. This made each of us divide our armies (not usually a great thing). In the opening turns thanks to some awesome dice skills (which blew away half of Derick's army and almost Derick himself) I quickly knocked out 2 Spider units and a unit of Squig/Spider Hoppers on my right. Derick generously self-destructed the Doom Diver and this resulted in my 5 Knights with Great Weapons facing down a Gobbo Spider Chariot and a Giant (spider of course). The Giant was exactly where I wanted him, deployed on the flank to hide from the Cannon. What really impressed me was that the Gobbo Chariot eventually charged the Knights (as predicted), only killed one (not as predicted), took a wound in return and broke (most unpredictable!). The Knights (taking advantage of not having to takea Terror test) overran into the Giant. They managed to take a wound of it before getting smashed. The surviving Knights fled the table.
The Flagellents, posted roughly on the same flank as the Giant managed to charge it as it ambled around a forest (still avoiding the cannon although the crew fled from a failed Terror test and over 3 turns never managed to rally). Killing off their mates the Flagellents (rerolling hits and wounds) dialled up enough wounds to kill the Giant in one round of combat and the good luck continued as he fell backwards, landing harmlessly (for me) on the nearby forest.
The Spearmen stuffed around trying to decide whether to take the building on the left or the right. The left was getting mighty crowded with the Swordsmen, various detachments and the Reiksguard Knights all looking for some action.
Play of the game was the Warrior Priest marching out to stand in front of the Orc General's unit of Savage Orc Boar Boyz. A pretty stupid idea until you consider that a) they had to charge him and, b) fleeing from their centre would force the Boar Boyz to hit the building with almost 1/2 their unit thereby stopping them from getting involved in the game for at least a couple of turns. The Warrior Priest was one lucky/unlucky SOB though - a Mortar shot at the Boar Boyz deviated right onto his head. Fortunately he only took one wound as a result and managed to heal this back later in the game. That was close!
Oversight of the game was that this still allowed two characters to get slungshot out into the Swordsmen. Runner-up for oversight of the game was getting all four of my characters within 12" of the Orc General with Shaggas. EIGHT strength EIGHT attacks later and my General was but ribbons of flesh on the floor. Incredibly (thanks to a Spear detachment counter-charge) I won the combat but both Orcs held easily. Even more incredibly I won combat again in the next round and both Orc characters rolled a double 6 and broke. The General escaped (for now...) but the other Orc Hero ran right into the Reiksguard Knights...
While this little drama was going on, despite attempting to divert me with a highly annoying surviving Spider Rider the Reiksguard (sans Priest and therefore a little less confident) charged into the Savage Orc Boar Boy Big 'Uns (cripes what a mouthful!). They did well, winning the combat for a couple of rounds. After some great shooting the "hit the house" Boar Boyz were reduced to two models and were able to flank charge them. Magical rerolls and my sudden inability to pass armour saves resulted in the unit evaporating. By this point I had several units nice and close (the Swordsmen and their Spear detachment chasing after the aforementioned Orc characters, some Free Company, the Huntsmen who had taken up residence in the building, the Wizard...). Everybody passed their Panic checks (amazing!) except the Free Company. A messy and very short (and brutal combat) ensued as the Swordsmen got up close and personal with the enemy. Unfortunately the combat was extremely unsuccessful and everyone flippin broke and ran. The Swordsmen were run down and the Spear detachment ran into the building (splat!).
The Orc General failed to rally and 11 hits from a Conflagaration of Doom sorted him out nicely before he had the chance to try again.
By this time (jumping around a bit now, sorry) I'd moved the Pistoliers from the extreme right flank to the extreme left flank and having taken care of a unit of Spider Riders on the way over they not only dealt with the two surviving Boar Boyz who had hit the Knight's flank but also a Gobbo riding his Giant Spider.
A nice fat Conflagaration finished the L4 Orc Shaman off in a most fitting (and fiery) manner and at the end of the game Derick was left with 2 bases of Snotling hiding in a wood in his deployment zone.
So what was the wash up?
I lost: General, Swordsmen, both units of Knights, all the detachments except the Handgunners and the Cannon. I had 3 quarters but thanks to better shooting than combat ability had no enemy standards. Killed an enemy Lord, three Heroes and (obviously) the enemy general.
Derick didn't lose (sorry mate): the Snotlings (contesting a quarter). He's also killed off my General.
VPs for Dave - 1960 (enemy losses) + 300 (character killing bonuses) + 300 (table quarters) = 2560VPs
VPs for Derick - 826 (enemy losses) + 140 (character killing bonuses) = 966VPs
A difference of 1594 = 17-3 win for the men of the Empire! (woot!)
Derick had some (very) poor luck with magic that contrasted with my excellent luck in magic and highly focused shooting (thanks for Lesson Four Trent!). I think I outdeployed him and was especially pleased with the luring of the Boar Boyz. Don't feel too sorry for old Derick though. Earlier that afternoon he smashed a cheesed up Orcs and Goblines (replete with dodgy calls and "tactics") with the fluffy Spiders - the army certainly has the goods!
And there it is - the end of an extensive series. Hopefully I've learnt something from all of this (and the lesson is not that I'd be better off using Dark Elves) and can get some exciting games at FluffyCon. The event itself is shaping up to be a cracker with a good sized field, some new players, and (I suspect) some quite radical armies.
Cheers for reading. In the interim feel free to read over older posts but check back again soon... I don't think I'll be able to wait till post-Fluffy to add to the blog especially now that I'm toying with lists for a 2250pt Empire list.
Well, this post sees the last in a surprisingly long (and fruitful) series of game playtesting my recently acquired Empire army for the FluffyCon tournament to be held in Auckland in 3 weeks. This will likely be my last post for a similar amount of time as I'm back to work (and working my butt off) which means no more night games, no weekend time... no life. Hopefully the investment I've made in game terms reaps a decent reward at the tournament but essentially, win or lose, I've enjoyed the fluffy games immensely and I get the feeling the majority of my opponents have too. It's inspired me, in my look at a 2250pt Empire force to use at other tournaments this year (and early next year... DogCon 2010 has now become the long-term goal), to try hard to keep with a fluffy feel.
Anyway, the game...
Key to this battle was a house/building almost in the middle of the table. This made each of us divide our armies (not usually a great thing). In the opening turns thanks to some awesome dice skills (which blew away half of Derick's army and almost Derick himself) I quickly knocked out 2 Spider units and a unit of Squig/Spider Hoppers on my right. Derick generously self-destructed the Doom Diver and this resulted in my 5 Knights with Great Weapons facing down a Gobbo Spider Chariot and a Giant (spider of course). The Giant was exactly where I wanted him, deployed on the flank to hide from the Cannon. What really impressed me was that the Gobbo Chariot eventually charged the Knights (as predicted), only killed one (not as predicted), took a wound in return and broke (most unpredictable!). The Knights (taking advantage of not having to takea Terror test) overran into the Giant. They managed to take a wound of it before getting smashed. The surviving Knights fled the table.
The Flagellents, posted roughly on the same flank as the Giant managed to charge it as it ambled around a forest (still avoiding the cannon although the crew fled from a failed Terror test and over 3 turns never managed to rally). Killing off their mates the Flagellents (rerolling hits and wounds) dialled up enough wounds to kill the Giant in one round of combat and the good luck continued as he fell backwards, landing harmlessly (for me) on the nearby forest.
The Spearmen stuffed around trying to decide whether to take the building on the left or the right. The left was getting mighty crowded with the Swordsmen, various detachments and the Reiksguard Knights all looking for some action.
Play of the game was the Warrior Priest marching out to stand in front of the Orc General's unit of Savage Orc Boar Boyz. A pretty stupid idea until you consider that a) they had to charge him and, b) fleeing from their centre would force the Boar Boyz to hit the building with almost 1/2 their unit thereby stopping them from getting involved in the game for at least a couple of turns. The Warrior Priest was one lucky/unlucky SOB though - a Mortar shot at the Boar Boyz deviated right onto his head. Fortunately he only took one wound as a result and managed to heal this back later in the game. That was close!
Oversight of the game was that this still allowed two characters to get slungshot out into the Swordsmen. Runner-up for oversight of the game was getting all four of my characters within 12" of the Orc General with Shaggas. EIGHT strength EIGHT attacks later and my General was but ribbons of flesh on the floor. Incredibly (thanks to a Spear detachment counter-charge) I won the combat but both Orcs held easily. Even more incredibly I won combat again in the next round and both Orc characters rolled a double 6 and broke. The General escaped (for now...) but the other Orc Hero ran right into the Reiksguard Knights...
While this little drama was going on, despite attempting to divert me with a highly annoying surviving Spider Rider the Reiksguard (sans Priest and therefore a little less confident) charged into the Savage Orc Boar Boy Big 'Uns (cripes what a mouthful!). They did well, winning the combat for a couple of rounds. After some great shooting the "hit the house" Boar Boyz were reduced to two models and were able to flank charge them. Magical rerolls and my sudden inability to pass armour saves resulted in the unit evaporating. By this point I had several units nice and close (the Swordsmen and their Spear detachment chasing after the aforementioned Orc characters, some Free Company, the Huntsmen who had taken up residence in the building, the Wizard...). Everybody passed their Panic checks (amazing!) except the Free Company. A messy and very short (and brutal combat) ensued as the Swordsmen got up close and personal with the enemy. Unfortunately the combat was extremely unsuccessful and everyone flippin broke and ran. The Swordsmen were run down and the Spear detachment ran into the building (splat!).
The Orc General failed to rally and 11 hits from a Conflagaration of Doom sorted him out nicely before he had the chance to try again.
By this time (jumping around a bit now, sorry) I'd moved the Pistoliers from the extreme right flank to the extreme left flank and having taken care of a unit of Spider Riders on the way over they not only dealt with the two surviving Boar Boyz who had hit the Knight's flank but also a Gobbo riding his Giant Spider.
A nice fat Conflagaration finished the L4 Orc Shaman off in a most fitting (and fiery) manner and at the end of the game Derick was left with 2 bases of Snotling hiding in a wood in his deployment zone.
So what was the wash up?
I lost: General, Swordsmen, both units of Knights, all the detachments except the Handgunners and the Cannon. I had 3 quarters but thanks to better shooting than combat ability had no enemy standards. Killed an enemy Lord, three Heroes and (obviously) the enemy general.
Derick didn't lose (sorry mate): the Snotlings (contesting a quarter). He's also killed off my General.
VPs for Dave - 1960 (enemy losses) + 300 (character killing bonuses) + 300 (table quarters) = 2560VPs
VPs for Derick - 826 (enemy losses) + 140 (character killing bonuses) = 966VPs
A difference of 1594 = 17-3 win for the men of the Empire! (woot!)
Derick had some (very) poor luck with magic that contrasted with my excellent luck in magic and highly focused shooting (thanks for Lesson Four Trent!). I think I outdeployed him and was especially pleased with the luring of the Boar Boyz. Don't feel too sorry for old Derick though. Earlier that afternoon he smashed a cheesed up Orcs and Goblines (replete with dodgy calls and "tactics") with the fluffy Spiders - the army certainly has the goods!
And there it is - the end of an extensive series. Hopefully I've learnt something from all of this (and the lesson is not that I'd be better off using Dark Elves) and can get some exciting games at FluffyCon. The event itself is shaping up to be a cracker with a good sized field, some new players, and (I suspect) some quite radical armies.
Cheers for reading. In the interim feel free to read over older posts but check back again soon... I don't think I'll be able to wait till post-Fluffy to add to the blog especially now that I'm toying with lists for a 2250pt Empire list.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Trent's School of Warhammer
I've signed up to an ongoing series of emails from the Golden Boy of Warhammer - Mr Trent Denison - a rambling but ultimately incredibly useful diatribe on some of the intricacies of the Warhammer game. To be honest it's bloody great and I've already come away from it (after three 'lessons') with a deeper sense of understanding about some of the 'hidden' elements of the game (usually hidden in plain sight but hidden nonetheless).
With Trent's permission (and all credit to him for this) here's some of the points I found most valid (so far):
- a review of the Four Stages of Competency (summarised as: you suck but don't know you suck and don't know why; you suck, don't know why, but acknowledge you suck; you suck much less and want to get better; you're good enough to not have to think about the mechanics of the game - ok, Trent put this a whole lot better than I just did).
- Results Focus. In line with the experience of some of my more recent games I am most interested in how to mitigate what looks to be a big loss - turning this into a minor loss or a draw with more conservative play and keeping track of the points balance throughout the game to gauge who is ahead, by how much, and what I need to accomplish in the remaining turns while keeping realistic and achieveable goals in mind.
- drawng on comments from Charles Black's article in IF4 - compulsory reading for all developing generals. The article goes through practically every element of the game in some detail. Awesome read.
- the idea that your preparation before anything hits the table equates to 50% of the game. Army design is a BIG part of this and was fortunate enough to get some great comments back from Trent about my plans for a 2250pt Empire list. As luck would have it he has experience with a list that has some startling similarities (which was immediately heartening) and was able to give me some GREAT advice. Thanks for that mate :-)
- a fantastic outline of various aspects of the movement phase and tactical applications of movment which, essentially, is what will win (or lose) you the game. Some of this stuff I'm doing but not well (at all). Some of it I'd barely considered (at least consciously) and have yet to actively put into play.
I sincerely hope the lessons continue as I'm really getting a lot out of it. Looking at next year I'm planning to get over the ditch for the first time for one of the big Oz tournaments (DogCon looks like the primo option) and I dare hope to be able to play some of the big names of the scene - surely this is where some of the best lessons in Warhammer lie! While I in no way under-rate the competition and player ability here in NZ there's something quite cool about the idea of playing a game against someone like Gav, Traishy, Andrew, Jeff... or Trent.
I highly doubt anyone reading this hasn't seen it but just in case you haven't go to Warpuppy Games and check out A Dogs Breakfast (Trent's vidblog).
With Trent's permission (and all credit to him for this) here's some of the points I found most valid (so far):
- a review of the Four Stages of Competency (summarised as: you suck but don't know you suck and don't know why; you suck, don't know why, but acknowledge you suck; you suck much less and want to get better; you're good enough to not have to think about the mechanics of the game - ok, Trent put this a whole lot better than I just did).
- Results Focus. In line with the experience of some of my more recent games I am most interested in how to mitigate what looks to be a big loss - turning this into a minor loss or a draw with more conservative play and keeping track of the points balance throughout the game to gauge who is ahead, by how much, and what I need to accomplish in the remaining turns while keeping realistic and achieveable goals in mind.
- drawng on comments from Charles Black's article in IF4 - compulsory reading for all developing generals. The article goes through practically every element of the game in some detail. Awesome read.
- the idea that your preparation before anything hits the table equates to 50% of the game. Army design is a BIG part of this and was fortunate enough to get some great comments back from Trent about my plans for a 2250pt Empire list. As luck would have it he has experience with a list that has some startling similarities (which was immediately heartening) and was able to give me some GREAT advice. Thanks for that mate :-)
- a fantastic outline of various aspects of the movement phase and tactical applications of movment which, essentially, is what will win (or lose) you the game. Some of this stuff I'm doing but not well (at all). Some of it I'd barely considered (at least consciously) and have yet to actively put into play.
I sincerely hope the lessons continue as I'm really getting a lot out of it. Looking at next year I'm planning to get over the ditch for the first time for one of the big Oz tournaments (DogCon looks like the primo option) and I dare hope to be able to play some of the big names of the scene - surely this is where some of the best lessons in Warhammer lie! While I in no way under-rate the competition and player ability here in NZ there's something quite cool about the idea of playing a game against someone like Gav, Traishy, Andrew, Jeff... or Trent.
I highly doubt anyone reading this hasn't seen it but just in case you haven't go to Warpuppy Games and check out A Dogs Breakfast (Trent's vidblog).
Hey Big Boy - FluffyCon playtesting
Venerable Nick invited me along to the AWC (Auckland Wargames Club) today to catch up with a few less regular opponents. I was very pleased to get a game in against John Matthews. A little less green and a little more thoughtful than when we last played I certainly hoped to give John's Ogres a good run for their money.
I faced down:
Bruiser General
Bruiser BSB
Butcher with Bangstick and Scroll
Butcher
5 Ironguts with Warbanner
4 Ironguts
2 x 3 Leadbelchers
3 Yhettees
3 x 3 Bulls
A Gorger
With the Butchers hiding in a Leadbelcher and Bull unit they got the majority of the shooting love. The Cannon managed to hit one and cause two wounds before self-immolating (hmm...) but hiding in a small unit turned out to be not such a bad thing as the rest of the shooting was randomised and I either couldn't panic the units by killing Ogres or couldn't wound the Butcher (needing 5s with the Crossbows and Handguns). The Pistoliers mucked around with a unit of Bulls, eventually killing two (after I forgot to shoot with them in one turn - dick), taking the charge of the last, winning by a musician, and being rescued by the Spearmen and General who...
... charged the Yhettees and took their sweet time getting through thanks to some handy break test rerolls from the Ogre BSB (in two consecutive rounds John need a '3' on the break test and managed it on the reroll). The Yhettees lost one and broke late in the game. I couldn't catch them and the jammy buggers ended up rallying saving John a stack of points and also contesting a table quarter.
The Flagellents did what comes naturally and ran straight at the nastiest unit in the opposing army - in this case John's fluffy Death Star - the Ironguts accompanied by BSB and Bruiser General. I managed to get the Swordsmen involved thanks to an overenthusiastic Butcher flanking the Flagellents. In turn the Swords were front-charged by some Bulls resulting in a messy looking combat. I managed to kill the Butcher (who had one wound left) eventually but of course in doing so lost the bonus for having a flank (gah!). The Bulls broke and were run down but the Swords rather awkwardly hit the back of the Flagellents. John rather amusingly (for me) ended up killing all but one of the Flaggies in one of my turns and of course killed the last in his turn allowing the Swords to get in a fresh charge. The Swordsmen promptly screwed up royally, fled and escaped but were unable to rally and ended up fleeing again. In good old Empire tradition they managed to panic the Wizard and Mortar. With no chance to rally I was stoked to just hand John another 250VPs. Nice.
The Reiksguard Knights, posted on the flank, mucked around waiting for John to get impatient and charge an extremely annoying Crossbow detachment. I tried to charge the detachment AND the Knights into the smaller unit of Ironguts. The Crossbow were overcome with cowardice (failed the Fear check) and thanks to my adept placement only the Warrior Priest and one Knight (NOT the Champion) contacted the unit, bringing two Ironguts (with Great Weapons) into the combat. Although John lost the opening round of the combat the Priest managed to take a wound. The Ironguts broke in the next round after the Priest made a fortunate armour save to stay alive. They were run down which I immediately regretted as of course if prevented me from charging into the Death Star on my last turn (the Swordsmen would surely have appreciated the support of a full unit of Knights with Warbanner and under the effects of Hatred - and Unbreakability - joining in their half-hearted combat). Dang.
The Gorger turned up late and snacked on a Free Company detachment. The GW-Knights tried for a rescue and although I didn't end up breaking the Gorger survived nicely (and of course being Unbreakable couldn't care less about losing any combats). I was surprised John wasn't directing attacks at the Knights (due to having Killing Blow) but he realised this after a couple of rounds of combat and mentioned it himself. As it was a couple of Free Company died each turn and this was matched by the outnumber and flank that the Knights enjoyed resulting in a happy stalemate.
EDIT! - thanks to John for pointing out it was actually a win to HIM by just over 200VPs! Way to miscommunicate Dave. So, after all that, an 11-9 loss :-)
Tomorrow night will be my last playtesting game before the tournament (3 weeks away but work is about to seriously interfere with gaming and I REALLY need to sleep when work starts up again - completely drained for a couple of weeks at least - call it system shock after 6 weeks holiday). Poetic justice demands I travel full circle so I've lined up a game against Derick's Spiders - a truly fitting end to this run of playtesting games.
I faced down:
Bruiser General
Bruiser BSB
Butcher with Bangstick and Scroll
Butcher
5 Ironguts with Warbanner
4 Ironguts
2 x 3 Leadbelchers
3 Yhettees
3 x 3 Bulls
A Gorger
With the Butchers hiding in a Leadbelcher and Bull unit they got the majority of the shooting love. The Cannon managed to hit one and cause two wounds before self-immolating (hmm...) but hiding in a small unit turned out to be not such a bad thing as the rest of the shooting was randomised and I either couldn't panic the units by killing Ogres or couldn't wound the Butcher (needing 5s with the Crossbows and Handguns). The Pistoliers mucked around with a unit of Bulls, eventually killing two (after I forgot to shoot with them in one turn - dick), taking the charge of the last, winning by a musician, and being rescued by the Spearmen and General who...
... charged the Yhettees and took their sweet time getting through thanks to some handy break test rerolls from the Ogre BSB (in two consecutive rounds John need a '3' on the break test and managed it on the reroll). The Yhettees lost one and broke late in the game. I couldn't catch them and the jammy buggers ended up rallying saving John a stack of points and also contesting a table quarter.
The Flagellents did what comes naturally and ran straight at the nastiest unit in the opposing army - in this case John's fluffy Death Star - the Ironguts accompanied by BSB and Bruiser General. I managed to get the Swordsmen involved thanks to an overenthusiastic Butcher flanking the Flagellents. In turn the Swords were front-charged by some Bulls resulting in a messy looking combat. I managed to kill the Butcher (who had one wound left) eventually but of course in doing so lost the bonus for having a flank (gah!). The Bulls broke and were run down but the Swords rather awkwardly hit the back of the Flagellents. John rather amusingly (for me) ended up killing all but one of the Flaggies in one of my turns and of course killed the last in his turn allowing the Swords to get in a fresh charge. The Swordsmen promptly screwed up royally, fled and escaped but were unable to rally and ended up fleeing again. In good old Empire tradition they managed to panic the Wizard and Mortar. With no chance to rally I was stoked to just hand John another 250VPs. Nice.
The Reiksguard Knights, posted on the flank, mucked around waiting for John to get impatient and charge an extremely annoying Crossbow detachment. I tried to charge the detachment AND the Knights into the smaller unit of Ironguts. The Crossbow were overcome with cowardice (failed the Fear check) and thanks to my adept placement only the Warrior Priest and one Knight (NOT the Champion) contacted the unit, bringing two Ironguts (with Great Weapons) into the combat. Although John lost the opening round of the combat the Priest managed to take a wound. The Ironguts broke in the next round after the Priest made a fortunate armour save to stay alive. They were run down which I immediately regretted as of course if prevented me from charging into the Death Star on my last turn (the Swordsmen would surely have appreciated the support of a full unit of Knights with Warbanner and under the effects of Hatred - and Unbreakability - joining in their half-hearted combat). Dang.
The Gorger turned up late and snacked on a Free Company detachment. The GW-Knights tried for a rescue and although I didn't end up breaking the Gorger survived nicely (and of course being Unbreakable couldn't care less about losing any combats). I was surprised John wasn't directing attacks at the Knights (due to having Killing Blow) but he realised this after a couple of rounds of combat and mentioned it himself. As it was a couple of Free Company died each turn and this was matched by the outnumber and flank that the Knights enjoyed resulting in a happy stalemate.
EDIT! - thanks to John for pointing out it was actually a win to HIM by just over 200VPs! Way to miscommunicate Dave. So, after all that, an 11-9 loss :-)
Tomorrow night will be my last playtesting game before the tournament (3 weeks away but work is about to seriously interfere with gaming and I REALLY need to sleep when work starts up again - completely drained for a couple of weeks at least - call it system shock after 6 weeks holiday). Poetic justice demands I travel full circle so I've lined up a game against Derick's Spiders - a truly fitting end to this run of playtesting games.
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