Captain Soft Scores lined me up last night to be his first victim on his newly created table and I was happy to oblige. Nick (this is Nick Irvine from the City Guard) has earned the title "Captain Soft Scores" for a good reason - his composition, sportsmanship and painting are frequently exeedingly high. He's a fantastic opponent and great fun to play.
Nick's been playing Wood Elves since... forever, and has started to get quite experimental with his lists. The current incarnation is focused around trying to solve the immense problem Wood Elves have facing down big scary beasties like Dragons, Greater Daemons and so on. The foundation principal here is a L4 mage with Lore of Beasts (trying for Beasts Cowers and/or Wolf hunts) accompanied by 6 Wild Riders with Warbanner. The Mage Cowers the badness and/or propels the Cavalry into combat with Wolf Hunts, accepts challenge and deflects hits with the Annoyance (hit on a '6' in challenges), saving them with the Crystal Mere (3+ ward save until the save is failed). The static 3 Wild Riders shout encouragment of get stuck into any rank and file that are handy and in spear range. It's definitely an interesting combination!
For this game I tried a slightly different and more concise thought process of categorising enemy units into various groups. This leads quickly to a plan of attack for the game. I've read a bit about this online but really tried hard to put it into practice in this game. I've always had trouble with Wood Elves (elusive little buggers that they are) - the key is always to pin them in the right and most favourable combat. So for this game I identified:
- the Hammer unit (Wild Riders)
- the Anvil (Treeman)
- the Redirectors (Glade Riders)
- the Ranged threat (2 units fo Glade Guard)
- the Assassins (2 units of Wardancers)
- the Magic threat (L4 Mage with Hunters Spear - a magical bolt thrower! - and Wolf Hunts - 2D6" move towards an enemy unit; can be used on monsters and cav - and the L2 Mage with Treesinging and Fury of the Forest - D6 str 4 or str5 if within 6" of a forest magical attacks!)
I think subconsciously all (or most) players do this in a game. I felt that actively identifying these threats and units and keeping this description in mind was extremely helpful.
Previous experience against Wood Elves tells me that their shooting can melt a unit per turn if you aren't careful, that the Tree is difficult to deal with for Vampires without flaming attacks, that Wardancers have a silly number of attacks, that the whole army is VERY mobile, and that there is a LOT of magical attacks in the army. Running forward and trying to get into combat just doesn't work - you've got to give the Elf player a reason to advance. Of course with a poorer comp score the pressure is really always on me (playing Vampires) to hunt the points.
Nick spread his force across the board with 2 units of Glade Guard holding the centre, the Wild Riders on his left and everything else spread across the right. I deployed with a strong left hook, the centre held by the Grave Guard (who would cope best with the ranged threat - high toughness and armour - and also any flank charge trickiness from the Wild Riders) a Skellies block accompanied by the VC general. I knew Nick could easily redeploy his army but with a forest blocking shooting to almost everything except the Grave Guard (who could obviously be raised back as easily as everything else) he would have to move to find the points.
I held in the centre and pushed up on the left but the Tree was giving me a headache. I couldn't roll it in one turn (unless the banshee got really lucky and screamed 3 or 4 wounds off it) so I spent some time getting the Zombies into position to tie it down. A lucky Book of Arkhan casting propelled them into combat and while I didn't break the damn thing he was at least tied down by 33 Zombies. Next turn some Wardancers charged in - leaving me with 3 Zombies after that round of combat! Fortunately this left room for some Knights and by General to combo charge the Wardancers. The general was in turn counter-charged by the second unit of Wardancers. This went on for quite a while but eventually the Tree was left unengaged and at the end of the game with no good charging options (and misfired trying to Strangleroot some Knights in the last turn) and Wardancer units both broke and were run down. Next to this combat the Varghulf was epic failing to wound some Dryads so the Wraiths charged in (not ideal as Dryads have magical attacks). It took some time (and cost me the Banshee) but I eventually got through them. On this flank Nick was left with the Treeman and his BSB in a forest against 5 Unbarded Knights, a Skellies block, the Varghulf, and 5 Wolves. In the centre the other Skellie block charged a unit fo Glade Guard (with a banner). The Skellies were getting dealt to until the Knights that had run down the Wardancers hit the Glade Guard in the flank and auto-broke them with outnumber by fear-causers.
The Wild Riders glorious sweep around my flank looking for a magical rear-charge on the Grave Guard in turn 4 or 5 was rudely interrupted by 5 Dire Wolves. The Wolves were quickly dealt with but Nick tired of this little game when a second unit of Wolves got in their way again. The potential of an 80pt return for a 600pt unit didn't thrill Nick so he backed off and looked for another option. Unfortunately he found it the wrong way. Instead of using a Scroll to stop a Book of Arkhan charge he gambled a one dice roll supported by a one-use reroll for a dispel attempt granted by some of his General's kit. The gamble failed and the Grave Guard charged the Wild Riders! Being Immune to Psychology the Elves had to hold. In a show of ineptitude the Grave Guard only killed the Wild Rider Champion and lost one in return. They broke the Wild Riders who of course escaped.
I should mention Nick's Alter Noble at this point. This clever little git earlier charged the flank of the Skellie unit with the VC general in it. He was never going to hold but with Hatred on the VC general I had to pursue. The Alter escaped and now pulled the same trick on the Grave Guard, rear-charging them, breaking and I failed to restrain pursuit on Ld7 so instead of charging the Wild Riders again I was now facing the wrong way!
Nevertheless I reformed to face the Wild Riders. Nick rallied the unit and moved as far away as possible but it turned out he couln't get far enough away to avoid a solo charge from my BSB in the last turn. Deftly avoiding the damned Mage with her Annoyance the BSB skewered a Wild Rider and with his standard and Walking Death won combat by 2! (the Wild Riders had lost their banner/Warbanner when they were broken by the Grave Guard earlier in the game). Incredibly the Wild Riders broke - a 600pt unit and a now uncontested table quarter! Surely a big swing at the end of the game.
So in the end Nick had the Treeman, BSB, Alter Noble (grrr!) and a unit of Glade Guard. I'd lost 1/2 a Skellie block, 1/2 the barded Knights, a unit of Wolves and the Zombies. I had two banners (Glade Guard and Wild Riders), the Wood Elf General (the L4 Mage) and a two quarters. Nick had one quarter and the last one (with the Treeman) was contested.
This was a win to me by just over 1400VPs. Gut feel was a 15-5 win after the comp kicked in which I was very pleased with.
Cheers for the game Nick - a little bit of vengeance for that 20-0 thrashing you gave me at FluffyCon this year :)
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Asian Nick's New Skaven - Version... 6?
My good mate Nick Ng (Master Enginner Extraordinaire) was busy not working on completing a Skaven army for the last army book and with the newest iteration of Those Dirty Rats has continued to present totally bizarre and highly experimental list for our fairly regular games. Skaven can present something of a problem for Vampires - they are now an awesome leadership army, they have stacks of magical attacks, their focused shooting combined with magic and dodgy template rules (I hear this will be the norm for 8th edition Warhammer) can vapourise a unit in the space of one turn.
Nick's latest list - seemingly vomited forth from a random list generator:
Seer - 2 Scrolls, Skalm (restore all lost wounds once per game)
Cheiftain with Battle Standard and reflecting saved wounds armour
Plague Priest - level 2 on Furnace with various kit including Pipes of Piebald (leadership test for enemy wishing to charge his unit)
39 Feckin Plaguemonks who, when joined by the Priest (or rather, his Furnace) become Unbreakable. The newly dubbed "Plaguetrain from Hell" as it were
11 Censer Bearers (an unusual number)
2 units of 3 Jezzails (again HIGHLY unusual)
Doomwheel
Plague Claw Catapult
3 units of Slaves
1 unit of Clanrats (Mortar)
1 unit of Stormvermin (Mortar)
A really tiny Skaven list. I waved the frenzied Plaguetrain through with some Wolves and set to against the rest of the list. Poor deployment of the Wraiths (which is becoming disturbingly habitual) saw them survive the battle but cause practically no discernable damage). I lost 14 Grave Guard in the first turn to a casting of Scorch and 2 Plague Mortars which was pretty frightening from a psychological perspective. Any other army losing their elite tough-guy unit in one turn would have been in a heck of a position but I got an Invocation past Nick's defense and 6 of the previously fried Grave Guard sprang back to unlife.
I took the Varghulf in this game. Yes I know I know - it's mentally hard. To compensate I took out the Lynci Vamp. Putting a lot of thought into this at the moment - is taking the two rares balanced out by taking 2 characters and having less offensive and defensive magic ability. Potentially for Vampires less magic is a "bad thing" so I'm unsure at this stage.
In this particular game the Varghulf went nuts - blasted through the Censer Bearers in a turn, got stuck into the Clanrats bunkering the Seer forcing him to expend an entire magic phase escaping or risk getting eaten (5 str5 attacks with Hatred from the Varghulf will munch any magic user) - Nick cou't chance losing the PD/DD and scrolls so chucked 5 dice at Skitterleapand bailed. Curses! Old Vargy was joined by my boss 2 turns later and they cleaned up the Clanrats before turning their attention to the Stormvermin now hiding not only the Seer but also the Skaven BSB. With Dire Wolves in their flank and Grave Guard in the front (along with the VC general and Varghulf in the back) the Stormvermin auto-broke and were run down.
The Plaguetrain managed to trample a unit of Skellies, claiming their banner and holding a quarter and this was the only Skaven unit to survive the game. There was absolutely no way I could tackle the Plaguemonks so it was always going to be 600pts I couldn't touch and how much of my stuff I could stop them from killing.
A win to the Vampires by maybe 500pts? (sorry Nick I've forgotten the details).
Nick's latest list - seemingly vomited forth from a random list generator:
Seer - 2 Scrolls, Skalm (restore all lost wounds once per game)
Cheiftain with Battle Standard and reflecting saved wounds armour
Plague Priest - level 2 on Furnace with various kit including Pipes of Piebald (leadership test for enemy wishing to charge his unit)
39 Feckin Plaguemonks who, when joined by the Priest (or rather, his Furnace) become Unbreakable. The newly dubbed "Plaguetrain from Hell" as it were
11 Censer Bearers (an unusual number)
2 units of 3 Jezzails (again HIGHLY unusual)
Doomwheel
Plague Claw Catapult
3 units of Slaves
1 unit of Clanrats (Mortar)
1 unit of Stormvermin (Mortar)
A really tiny Skaven list. I waved the frenzied Plaguetrain through with some Wolves and set to against the rest of the list. Poor deployment of the Wraiths (which is becoming disturbingly habitual) saw them survive the battle but cause practically no discernable damage). I lost 14 Grave Guard in the first turn to a casting of Scorch and 2 Plague Mortars which was pretty frightening from a psychological perspective. Any other army losing their elite tough-guy unit in one turn would have been in a heck of a position but I got an Invocation past Nick's defense and 6 of the previously fried Grave Guard sprang back to unlife.
I took the Varghulf in this game. Yes I know I know - it's mentally hard. To compensate I took out the Lynci Vamp. Putting a lot of thought into this at the moment - is taking the two rares balanced out by taking 2 characters and having less offensive and defensive magic ability. Potentially for Vampires less magic is a "bad thing" so I'm unsure at this stage.
In this particular game the Varghulf went nuts - blasted through the Censer Bearers in a turn, got stuck into the Clanrats bunkering the Seer forcing him to expend an entire magic phase escaping or risk getting eaten (5 str5 attacks with Hatred from the Varghulf will munch any magic user) - Nick cou't chance losing the PD/DD and scrolls so chucked 5 dice at Skitterleapand bailed. Curses! Old Vargy was joined by my boss 2 turns later and they cleaned up the Clanrats before turning their attention to the Stormvermin now hiding not only the Seer but also the Skaven BSB. With Dire Wolves in their flank and Grave Guard in the front (along with the VC general and Varghulf in the back) the Stormvermin auto-broke and were run down.
The Plaguetrain managed to trample a unit of Skellies, claiming their banner and holding a quarter and this was the only Skaven unit to survive the game. There was absolutely no way I could tackle the Plaguemonks so it was always going to be 600pts I couldn't touch and how much of my stuff I could stop them from killing.
A win to the Vampires by maybe 500pts? (sorry Nick I've forgotten the details).
Monday, December 14, 2009
Just for Mike
Hi Mike :)
This is for you...
DogCon approaches. This will be my first Australian tournament (I hope the first of many) so I am super-excited - not just about the travel and playing new opponents but also hanging out for the weekend with mates and smashing the Aussies.
DogCon has a repuation for being a hard mans event. FluffyCon this is not. Soften up at your peril. To emphasise this point the composition scoring for the event has no bonuses for soft armies. You are either (in the judges opinion) on-target or hard. This has led to a "-1" kind of thinking; go hard enough to get a -1, make sure taking the negative comp score is worth it in terms of your choices, and be prepared to face opponents who have taken a similar attitude.
DogCon is big. More than 120 players? That's an enormous event by anyone's standards (and can only add to my childish excitement). This opens up the interesting and unusual possibility of getting a run of opponents where you might play well, win all your games, and still not see the best players because of the large numbers. Quite a few people could in fact win all their games at this event! I'm not under any illusions - barring sheer dumb luck of the draw I don't expect (or hope) to face any "named" players. I'm just keen to face 6 unfamiliar opponents and have us both do our best to beat the stuffing out of each others armies.
So what's the plan? Vampires.
Having done Dwarfs, lingered on Lizards, dabbled with Dark Elves, busted out Brettonians and exasperated myself with Empire I've finally succumbed to the dark (darker than Dark Elves dark!) side and gone undead.
I'm enjoying the army immensely but am still finding my feet and as a result haven't been demolishing my opponents like I've been led to believe VCs do without breaking a sweat, lifting a finger or using any brain power whatsoever.
The list I'm taking (or at least version 5; the current version which I might take) looks hard to me (certainly compared to Empire!) but I'm told by more experienced and well-travelled players is likely to be spot on (in a "-1" kind of way) for DogCon.
Looks like this (at the moment) with notes for Mike to understand what the heck I'm talking about:
Lord - Lord of the Dead (raise Skellies above starting strength and +1 to cast), Sword of Might (for a total of 4 str6 attacks), Infinite Hatred (rerolling misses in every round of combat), Dread Knight (mounted on a barded steed with heavy armour and a shield (for a 2+ save), Cadaverous Cuirass (not affected by Poison attacks or Killing Blow), Dispel Scroll, Book of Arkhan (bound 3 Van Hel's Danse which lets a unit get a free 8" move - gold)
Hero - BSB, Dread Knight, Black Periapt (lets the BSB store his power dice and use it as dispel dice in the enemy magic phase, or store a dispel dice and use it as a power dice - handy), Walking Death (an extra point of combat res), Helm of Commandment (gives his weapon skill to a unit within 12")
Hero - Talisman of the Lynci (9" move), Great Weapon, Hatred, 2+ save
20 Skeletons - full command
20 Skeletons - full command
21 Zombies
5 Wolves
5 Wolves
5 Wolves
20 Grave Guard (uber-Skeletons of dooooom!) - Full Command, Warbanner
6 Black Knights with a banner giving them Hatred
5 Black Knights with nothing
4 Wraiths and a Banshee (an awful unit really... very nasty)
So the army/list is FAR from soft and should go 6 rounds and give me a good result and some enjoyable games. I'm under no illusions at all for this event - I haven't a hope in placing or even making the top 10. I just want a really good time and 6 opponents who give me a challenging game.
I've had a fair bit of playtesting so far and now that I'm on holiday hope to do a lot more. The games have all been fun (had a cracker of a game against Orcs and Goblins recently - a real blast) and I've learnt more about the army and what it can do (and what I shouldn't do!) in every game so no complaints there.
Still thinking about making changes. Had a moral dilemma and moment of weakness where I put a Varghulf in there too (sort of a monster Vampire thing - can go a bit nuts and combined with the Wraiths is a bit silly) but was talked out of it thank goodness. Have some other options including some Spirit Hosts (ethereal ghosties - not as deadly as the Wraiths but can be a good matchup against some armies).
Hopefully now that I'm under some pressure I'll post up some more detailed reports of the practice games and a solid report on the tournament itself. We're really spoiled for events right now - I get back from Oz, wait three weeks for the next tournament (FluffyCon) then another three weeks before another event here in Auckland (Equinox) which is being run by the City Guard.
Life is good :)
This is for you...
DogCon approaches. This will be my first Australian tournament (I hope the first of many) so I am super-excited - not just about the travel and playing new opponents but also hanging out for the weekend with mates and smashing the Aussies.
DogCon has a repuation for being a hard mans event. FluffyCon this is not. Soften up at your peril. To emphasise this point the composition scoring for the event has no bonuses for soft armies. You are either (in the judges opinion) on-target or hard. This has led to a "-1" kind of thinking; go hard enough to get a -1, make sure taking the negative comp score is worth it in terms of your choices, and be prepared to face opponents who have taken a similar attitude.
DogCon is big. More than 120 players? That's an enormous event by anyone's standards (and can only add to my childish excitement). This opens up the interesting and unusual possibility of getting a run of opponents where you might play well, win all your games, and still not see the best players because of the large numbers. Quite a few people could in fact win all their games at this event! I'm not under any illusions - barring sheer dumb luck of the draw I don't expect (or hope) to face any "named" players. I'm just keen to face 6 unfamiliar opponents and have us both do our best to beat the stuffing out of each others armies.
So what's the plan? Vampires.
Having done Dwarfs, lingered on Lizards, dabbled with Dark Elves, busted out Brettonians and exasperated myself with Empire I've finally succumbed to the dark (darker than Dark Elves dark!) side and gone undead.
I'm enjoying the army immensely but am still finding my feet and as a result haven't been demolishing my opponents like I've been led to believe VCs do without breaking a sweat, lifting a finger or using any brain power whatsoever.
The list I'm taking (or at least version 5; the current version which I might take) looks hard to me (certainly compared to Empire!) but I'm told by more experienced and well-travelled players is likely to be spot on (in a "-1" kind of way) for DogCon.
Looks like this (at the moment) with notes for Mike to understand what the heck I'm talking about:
Lord - Lord of the Dead (raise Skellies above starting strength and +1 to cast), Sword of Might (for a total of 4 str6 attacks), Infinite Hatred (rerolling misses in every round of combat), Dread Knight (mounted on a barded steed with heavy armour and a shield (for a 2+ save), Cadaverous Cuirass (not affected by Poison attacks or Killing Blow), Dispel Scroll, Book of Arkhan (bound 3 Van Hel's Danse which lets a unit get a free 8" move - gold)
Hero - BSB, Dread Knight, Black Periapt (lets the BSB store his power dice and use it as dispel dice in the enemy magic phase, or store a dispel dice and use it as a power dice - handy), Walking Death (an extra point of combat res), Helm of Commandment (gives his weapon skill to a unit within 12")
Hero - Talisman of the Lynci (9" move), Great Weapon, Hatred, 2+ save
20 Skeletons - full command
20 Skeletons - full command
21 Zombies
5 Wolves
5 Wolves
5 Wolves
20 Grave Guard (uber-Skeletons of dooooom!) - Full Command, Warbanner
6 Black Knights with a banner giving them Hatred
5 Black Knights with nothing
4 Wraiths and a Banshee (an awful unit really... very nasty)
So the army/list is FAR from soft and should go 6 rounds and give me a good result and some enjoyable games. I'm under no illusions at all for this event - I haven't a hope in placing or even making the top 10. I just want a really good time and 6 opponents who give me a challenging game.
I've had a fair bit of playtesting so far and now that I'm on holiday hope to do a lot more. The games have all been fun (had a cracker of a game against Orcs and Goblins recently - a real blast) and I've learnt more about the army and what it can do (and what I shouldn't do!) in every game so no complaints there.
Still thinking about making changes. Had a moral dilemma and moment of weakness where I put a Varghulf in there too (sort of a monster Vampire thing - can go a bit nuts and combined with the Wraiths is a bit silly) but was talked out of it thank goodness. Have some other options including some Spirit Hosts (ethereal ghosties - not as deadly as the Wraiths but can be a good matchup against some armies).
Hopefully now that I'm under some pressure I'll post up some more detailed reports of the practice games and a solid report on the tournament itself. We're really spoiled for events right now - I get back from Oz, wait three weeks for the next tournament (FluffyCon) then another three weeks before another event here in Auckland (Equinox) which is being run by the City Guard.
Life is good :)
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