Phil (not Star-Dragon Phil) took up the offer of a game on Sunday so in War-of-the-Beardesque style the Dwarfs took on the High Elves. Phil's awesomely fluffy army was (and I may not have this entirely correct):
Prince (General) on foot (in White Lions)
Prince BSB with Silver Helms
2 x Level 2 Mages
Spear block - full command (FC)
Lothern block - FC
Big block fo White Lions - FC
Silver Helms - FC
Dragon Princes - FC
Lion Chariot
2 Bolties
2 Thrice-damned Eagles of charge-stopping, redirecting, bait-and-fleeing doom
In summary the game was characterised by:
Phil being a better player - a solid plan that took advantage of his awesome maneoverability (and my total lack of), decent shooting and quite frankly terrifying magic (6PD+bound - Ring of Fury - totally trumped my 4DD + magic resistance on the Longbeards). Mind you... 3 irresistible force Flames of the Phoenix's (Phoenii?) helped some... I on the other hand put the Hammerers SO far out of position they may as well just stayed in the box. Ugh.
Phil having a better army - with flexible shooting, great movement, some magical niceness, decent leadership, mix of armour, static res, a chariot, march blockers and diverters... his army is waaaay better than what the Dwarfs could muster. A flexible and quite fluffy force - still small, this is High Elves after all - but very capable. Nice work Phil!
Phil having better dice than me - I put this one last because really it's a poor general who whinges, bitches and moans about the dice "Ohhh... I was so unlucky. Ohhh... his dice were so much better. Ohhh... I want to blame random number generators for my failings and inadequacies" etc. Fact is though - his bloody dice were on fire. I don't know where the Lucky Dave shirt was but I sure as heck wasn't gettin any of it! Aside from the 3 irresistible forces (and admittedly a miscast in the last turn which took a wound off one of the Mages) points of note and the difference in our luck include:
- the Lion chariot moving through the wood 3 times and flippin surviving!
- me failing a fear check needing 9
- the Lothern Seaguard shooting dead my general - 5s to hit; 6s to wound; 2s to save = dead Dwarf :/
- me fleeing with my Thunderers a mighty 1" - that's right. Double ones to flee, minus one for being short and fat = 1" flee move. Equals dead Thunderers.
- my cannon blowing up with it's first shot (again)
- hitting the Prince BSB, wounding and then rolling a '1' for D6 wounds with the Grudgethrower (2+ and he's dead... sigh)
Long and the (Dwarfishly) short of it was a loss by 1009VPs which I think is around a 15-5 or so.
I lost HEAPS of stuff. Phil lost 1/2 the Silver Helms, an Eagle, 1/2 the chariot, 1/2 a Mage (from the miscast), one of the bolt throwers and the Spear block when he decided to make things "interesting" and rear charge the Longbeards (they bounced and were run down).
Phil is (naturally) a great sport but it was a tough match up and I'd rather not enter FluffyCon hoping for a nice draw to see me through. It's not much of a game plan is it?
Back to the drawing board...
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Training for fluffiness
And so begins a few months of play-testing as I strive for optimum levels of fluffiness in my Dwarfs. It's like the montage of training scenes from Rocky but instead of running up and down stairs and whacking that bouncing punching thingy it's more like wading through marshmallows and punching bunny rabbits. Um...
Derick and I haven't played for ages (as evidenced by me forgetting Dwarfs Hate Greenskins) but it was great to see him, have him over last night and thrash his sticky Spider army. Derick's lads are uber-fluffy - as Nick puts it, "hamstringing yourself". There are however some dangerous elements that would be underestimated at your peril. For example:
- the L4 Shaman (who is not the General). Derick had some terrible luck given that my FluffyDwarfs only have 4 dispel dice (and no scrolls) - he didn't miscast but almost every spell failed to cast by '1'. With the Shaman in combat he attempted Waagh! with 4 dice and even with the +2 to cast for being in combat STILL failed to cast! We both agreed that things might have been very different had the spell gone off!
- those damn Savage Orc Boar Boy Big 'Uns! Gosh but they're hard. Fortunately they had no choice but to charge the Hammerers led by the ASF Thane. Pain time for the Orcsies.
- The other characters - specifically the Boar-mounted General with Shagga's but also the other guy with Martog's Basha (WS6). At str5 on the charge with Ironback Boars... well, it hurts. My Rangers found this out (to their detriment) as 9 died on the charge and the last one failed his break test and was unsurisingly run down. An intersesting option for Derick is to combine his mounted characters together to make character units. The Gobbo on Giant Spider combined with the General, other Orc Hero and/or even the Shaman have a high enough unit strength to break ranks and can cause a heinous amount of casualties. Even Dwarfs would be struggling...
- the Giant. I've had bad experiences with Giants. I was VERY fortunate to kill the Giant off with the ever-awesome Grudgethrower with two direct hits and three wounds with each hit. 2D6 str6 hits is not my idea of fun. Don't like Giants.
The Dragonslayer was interesting. He took a charge from a unit of Spider Riders, took a wound and dished out two in return, losing the combat by a musician. Being Unbreakable of course he couldn't care less. Even better at initiative 4 (four!!! A Dwarf with initiative 4!!!) he killed the two in contact before they could take a swing at him in the next round. This didn't bother the rest of the Spider unit because they were dead after taking a little Warrior block in the front and Miners in the side.
The Gobbo chariot was popped in the first turn by the Cannon.
The Longbeards and another small Warrior unit never saw combat. This is problematic I suspect in that I'm going to have trouble maneouvering all these short-legged lads into the right places to make good combat happen. They keep getting in each others way.
Around turn 4(ish) we called the game. Derick had his characters left and a unit of Spider Riders. I had lost the Rangers and a smattering of other models but all the units left were well-above half-strength. Clearly Dwarfs have some serious advantages against this list and I wondered if it's still too hard. More playtesting coming up but I suspect when I hit something with a little more... hit... I'll be in for it.
Derick and I haven't played for ages (as evidenced by me forgetting Dwarfs Hate Greenskins) but it was great to see him, have him over last night and thrash his sticky Spider army. Derick's lads are uber-fluffy - as Nick puts it, "hamstringing yourself". There are however some dangerous elements that would be underestimated at your peril. For example:
- the L4 Shaman (who is not the General). Derick had some terrible luck given that my FluffyDwarfs only have 4 dispel dice (and no scrolls) - he didn't miscast but almost every spell failed to cast by '1'. With the Shaman in combat he attempted Waagh! with 4 dice and even with the +2 to cast for being in combat STILL failed to cast! We both agreed that things might have been very different had the spell gone off!
- those damn Savage Orc Boar Boy Big 'Uns! Gosh but they're hard. Fortunately they had no choice but to charge the Hammerers led by the ASF Thane. Pain time for the Orcsies.
- The other characters - specifically the Boar-mounted General with Shagga's but also the other guy with Martog's Basha (WS6). At str5 on the charge with Ironback Boars... well, it hurts. My Rangers found this out (to their detriment) as 9 died on the charge and the last one failed his break test and was unsurisingly run down. An intersesting option for Derick is to combine his mounted characters together to make character units. The Gobbo on Giant Spider combined with the General, other Orc Hero and/or even the Shaman have a high enough unit strength to break ranks and can cause a heinous amount of casualties. Even Dwarfs would be struggling...
- the Giant. I've had bad experiences with Giants. I was VERY fortunate to kill the Giant off with the ever-awesome Grudgethrower with two direct hits and three wounds with each hit. 2D6 str6 hits is not my idea of fun. Don't like Giants.
The Dragonslayer was interesting. He took a charge from a unit of Spider Riders, took a wound and dished out two in return, losing the combat by a musician. Being Unbreakable of course he couldn't care less. Even better at initiative 4 (four!!! A Dwarf with initiative 4!!!) he killed the two in contact before they could take a swing at him in the next round. This didn't bother the rest of the Spider unit because they were dead after taking a little Warrior block in the front and Miners in the side.
The Gobbo chariot was popped in the first turn by the Cannon.
The Longbeards and another small Warrior unit never saw combat. This is problematic I suspect in that I'm going to have trouble maneouvering all these short-legged lads into the right places to make good combat happen. They keep getting in each others way.
Around turn 4(ish) we called the game. Derick had his characters left and a unit of Spider Riders. I had lost the Rangers and a smattering of other models but all the units left were well-above half-strength. Clearly Dwarfs have some serious advantages against this list and I wondered if it's still too hard. More playtesting coming up but I suspect when I hit something with a little more... hit... I'll be in for it.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Dwarfs vs N.K.O.T.B.
That's New Kids On The Block by the way.
Andrew and I arranged a game last week for today and I was keen to test how hard the new Chaos list is. Andrew is currently running:
Lord on Steed
Sorcerer
BSB with Rapturous Standard
3 x 15 Chaos Warriors
Chariot
2 x 5 Warhounds
2 x 5 Knights
Slannesh marks abound in the list so practically everything barring the Hounds is immune to panic, fear and terror but crucially NOT immune to psychology so still able to flee as a charge reaction.
I ran the same list I took to the Tin Soldier tournament earlier in the year - rock hard Shieldborne Lord with Hammerers et al (refer to previous posts around June if you want the full breakdown, justification and previous experience of the list).
Key to the battle was a wacking great piece of impassable terrain in the middle of my deployment zone. This forced me to split my army - blocks on the left, chaff on the right. It's been too long since I've played Dwarfs and there were some errors with the deployment but overall I figured I could cope and make gains later in the game. The shooters faced off against a Warrior block, a unit of warhounds, the chariot and BOTH units of Knights. Hrm... My Cannon misfired and exploded with it's first shot at the chariot which was a pity. The Organ Gun then smashed three knights from their saddles. Having read the rules carefully the Runesmith (suicidally deployed on the flank with the Thunderers) went solo and Rune of Challenged the remaining two knights away from the Organ Gun (able to be used as they are not actually Immune to Psychology). He fled the charge (obviously) but the useless git then failed to rally and with enormous strides for one so vertically challenged, fled the board. Luckily I didn't need the two scrolls he was packing as Andrew was busy miscasting, losing a magic level and leaving him rolling two dice to cast a spell requiring '12' to successfully go off. Eventually the Chaos Lord and chariot (with one wound left) did for the Quarellers which panicked the Thunderers into the last Knights after the Organ Gun had a go at the other unit (and then died to their charge). Net result was nothing left for me on my right and Andrew left with the Lord, the unit he was slungshot out of, the chariot on one wound, and 3 knights.
Meanwhile Andrew was realising that impassable terrain was as much a problem for him as it was to me. Unable to attack the flank of the Hammerers his BSBs unit took a frontal charge - the Lord promptly carved up the BSB and his silly (but awesomely effective - if it is allowed to work) Rapturous Standard (the BSB was compelled to accept the Lord's challenge). The Warriors were broken and escaped and were broken again (and escaped again!) which netted the Hammerers two banners. A charge from the Chaos Lord into their flank and Andrew learnt why Dwarf Tanks/Lords are not to be trifled with - the Lord bounced and ran. The Hammerer's pursuit took them to the Warriors coming back from the devastation on my right flank. A quick beat-up later and the Hammerers had their third banner and the last 3 knights provided them with their fourth. By the end of the game the elite Dwarfs had nearly done a circuit of the battlefield. Most satisfying. Poor Andrew got a bit sick of me saying "ok, you have a banner... I have 2 ranks, 3 (or 4) wounds, outnumber, banner which is a warbanner (Rune of Battle)... double ones for the break test".
The other major fight was another Warrior unit (with Sorcerer) stalemating against the Longbeards (with my BSB). The Sorcerer and BSB slapped at each other ineffectually for 4 or so combat rounds before the BSB finally finished the poor sod off (again, the Sorcerer was compelled to accept the challenge). Eventually the Warriors were broken and caught, the Longbeards taking a banner themselves.
Due to my poor deployment the Dwarf Warriors never even saw combat. Sigh...
Andrew was left with the Chaos Lord and a Warrior unit. I'd lost the shooty chaff with the exception of the Grudgethrower and Gyro and still had the three blocks (and hence most of my points). With the five banners collected and holding two table quarters the end result was a win to me by just over 1700VPs. Not bad for Dwarfs - the big win is very hard to get.
Afterwards we both agreed that Andrew would have been better off putting the Knights either on the other flank or putting a unit on each flank. Good lessons about grinding - Chaos Warriors are hard for sure but they lacked the static res to see off the stunties and couldn't dish out the wounds expected due to their toughness and armour (and my awesome luck/dice skills). Warriors are damn expensive (16pts each with gear!) with WS and initiative 5 and a 2+ save in combat they are certainly the business. Unfortunately against the Dwarven elite they had their work more than cut out for them. Andrew's not keen on the Marauder models so it's a case of finding a way to make the Warriors work. Not sure how myself but min-sized units might be a start. The Knights are potentially very scary (Rage banner would be very very nasty) but were well shot up by the time they found a worthy target (the Hammerers) and hitting them in the front meant they were always going to stuggle.
Despite the result a most excellent and entertaining game and Andrew took the learning experience in his stride.
Andrew and I arranged a game last week for today and I was keen to test how hard the new Chaos list is. Andrew is currently running:
Lord on Steed
Sorcerer
BSB with Rapturous Standard
3 x 15 Chaos Warriors
Chariot
2 x 5 Warhounds
2 x 5 Knights
Slannesh marks abound in the list so practically everything barring the Hounds is immune to panic, fear and terror but crucially NOT immune to psychology so still able to flee as a charge reaction.
I ran the same list I took to the Tin Soldier tournament earlier in the year - rock hard Shieldborne Lord with Hammerers et al (refer to previous posts around June if you want the full breakdown, justification and previous experience of the list).
Key to the battle was a wacking great piece of impassable terrain in the middle of my deployment zone. This forced me to split my army - blocks on the left, chaff on the right. It's been too long since I've played Dwarfs and there were some errors with the deployment but overall I figured I could cope and make gains later in the game. The shooters faced off against a Warrior block, a unit of warhounds, the chariot and BOTH units of Knights. Hrm... My Cannon misfired and exploded with it's first shot at the chariot which was a pity. The Organ Gun then smashed three knights from their saddles. Having read the rules carefully the Runesmith (suicidally deployed on the flank with the Thunderers) went solo and Rune of Challenged the remaining two knights away from the Organ Gun (able to be used as they are not actually Immune to Psychology). He fled the charge (obviously) but the useless git then failed to rally and with enormous strides for one so vertically challenged, fled the board. Luckily I didn't need the two scrolls he was packing as Andrew was busy miscasting, losing a magic level and leaving him rolling two dice to cast a spell requiring '12' to successfully go off. Eventually the Chaos Lord and chariot (with one wound left) did for the Quarellers which panicked the Thunderers into the last Knights after the Organ Gun had a go at the other unit (and then died to their charge). Net result was nothing left for me on my right and Andrew left with the Lord, the unit he was slungshot out of, the chariot on one wound, and 3 knights.
Meanwhile Andrew was realising that impassable terrain was as much a problem for him as it was to me. Unable to attack the flank of the Hammerers his BSBs unit took a frontal charge - the Lord promptly carved up the BSB and his silly (but awesomely effective - if it is allowed to work) Rapturous Standard (the BSB was compelled to accept the Lord's challenge). The Warriors were broken and escaped and were broken again (and escaped again!) which netted the Hammerers two banners. A charge from the Chaos Lord into their flank and Andrew learnt why Dwarf Tanks/Lords are not to be trifled with - the Lord bounced and ran. The Hammerer's pursuit took them to the Warriors coming back from the devastation on my right flank. A quick beat-up later and the Hammerers had their third banner and the last 3 knights provided them with their fourth. By the end of the game the elite Dwarfs had nearly done a circuit of the battlefield. Most satisfying. Poor Andrew got a bit sick of me saying "ok, you have a banner... I have 2 ranks, 3 (or 4) wounds, outnumber, banner which is a warbanner (Rune of Battle)... double ones for the break test".
The other major fight was another Warrior unit (with Sorcerer) stalemating against the Longbeards (with my BSB). The Sorcerer and BSB slapped at each other ineffectually for 4 or so combat rounds before the BSB finally finished the poor sod off (again, the Sorcerer was compelled to accept the challenge). Eventually the Warriors were broken and caught, the Longbeards taking a banner themselves.
Due to my poor deployment the Dwarf Warriors never even saw combat. Sigh...
Andrew was left with the Chaos Lord and a Warrior unit. I'd lost the shooty chaff with the exception of the Grudgethrower and Gyro and still had the three blocks (and hence most of my points). With the five banners collected and holding two table quarters the end result was a win to me by just over 1700VPs. Not bad for Dwarfs - the big win is very hard to get.
Afterwards we both agreed that Andrew would have been better off putting the Knights either on the other flank or putting a unit on each flank. Good lessons about grinding - Chaos Warriors are hard for sure but they lacked the static res to see off the stunties and couldn't dish out the wounds expected due to their toughness and armour (and my awesome luck/dice skills). Warriors are damn expensive (16pts each with gear!) with WS and initiative 5 and a 2+ save in combat they are certainly the business. Unfortunately against the Dwarven elite they had their work more than cut out for them. Andrew's not keen on the Marauder models so it's a case of finding a way to make the Warriors work. Not sure how myself but min-sized units might be a start. The Knights are potentially very scary (Rage banner would be very very nasty) but were well shot up by the time they found a worthy target (the Hammerers) and hitting them in the front meant they were always going to stuggle.
Despite the result a most excellent and entertaining game and Andrew took the learning experience in his stride.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Back to Stunties - looking at FluffyCon late Feb 09
Well it's a slow news day - what with the American election and it being voting day here in New Zealand - so I thought I might as well wax lyrical on getting back into Dwarfs for a bit.
I caught a game against Stuart who is new to the club but has played Fantasy before (like a hundred years ago or something) so it was mostly a bit of a retraining exercise for him learning to play and a retraining exercise for remembering why Dwarfs suck. No, not suck. It's just so hard to kick some serious ass and control the game with Dwarfs. Problem is, even with a new army book (which will be out sometime in the next 25 years... one can but hope) I very much doubt they will change the movement value of 3. This is absolutely crucial to the nature of the race but at the same time, combined with the fact they have no monsters or cavalry and the only thing that can move decent distances is the Gyro, despite the fact they can always march the low movement really cripples the army. You really are forced to castle up and play defensively and pretty much anything else (including a Strollaz Rune setup with the pre-first turn 6" move) is just a variation on that theme.
Anyway the game was a massacre win to me despite my Cannon and Organ Gun exploding in classic reliable old Dwarf fashion (someone please explain why it feels like Skaven shooting is more reliable than Dwarf shooting please). This was definitely due in part to some good luck on balance, the relative inexperience of my opponent, and the ridiculous hardness of the Longbeards in a 1500pt game.
Still, having come from playing Lizardmen and Brettonians recently with their fantastic mobility and hard-hitting charges... well, Dwarfs are more than a little frustrating.
So Big Nick is running FluffyCon and, given the natural comp boost Dwarfs will get in this environment (see earlier and my "Dwarfs suck" comment) I thought it prudent to not only take advantage of the comp boost they are likely to receive by taking the army but, due to the nature of the "Hard Caps" at the event (and knowing as a result I won't be facing anything too heinous), I could run a slightly more adventurous list than might otherwise be possible.
Here is the list as it stands (with much playtesting to be done - everything that follows is theoryhammer I'm afraid):
Thane (General) - Runes of +1 str (str5), +1 attack (4 attacks total) and Always Strikes First, Rune of Stone, Shield (1+ save in combat)
Thane (BSB) - Runes of 1+ rerollable armour save, magic resistance (1), immune to fire
Dragonslayer
19 Longbeards - full command, rune of double unit strength, shields
20 Warriors - full command, shields
10 Longbeard Rangers - musician, shields, throwing axes, great weapons
10 Warriors - shields
10 Warriors - shields
10 Thunderers - no shields
10 Quarellers - no shields
15 Hammerers - full command, rune of immune to fear/terror, shields
10 Miners
Grudgethrower - rune of accuracy, rune of burning
Cannon - rune of burning
4DD and a magic resistance (1) character
2PD
125 models
2000pts exactly
Flicking through the list, a couple of things stand out:
- no Lord option
- no Runesmith (and therefore no scrolls or pool dispel dice)
- no Rare choices
- 53% is Core choices (7 Core choices in total)
- 11% magic items and runic tricksiness (difficult to keep this down I felt)
- Longbeard Rangers (!)
- 3 units of Warriors
For me the big part of the list is the Rangers and 2 small (10-man) Warrior units. My feeling here is to absorb the charge with the big blocks and counter attack with the smaller units. Alternatively the small Warrior blocks can bait and flee (as much as Dwarfs can) in order to setup the aforementioned counter-charges (they don't have musicians but they do rally on a '9' sp hopefully...). The Longbeard Rangers have the potential to be AWESOME - if they don't get shot up and magicked to bits. They are hideously expensive but a str5 stand-and-shoot reaction (str5!), great weapons or hand weapon/shield, and WS5/str4(6) in combat makes them actually quite versatile. And they can Scout although I don't expect they will ever be able to do so.
Hopefully I still have enough shooting to force my opponent to move and engage. The Cannon is there for the occasional big nasty and to take out chariots. The grudgethrower is there for anti-infantry, anti-heavy cav or counter-battery fire (good guess ranging and the scatter reroll makes this an awesome all-round warmachine).
I'll be playing a series of games over the next couple of months to figure out how the army works and whether my theories are just pipe-dreams or if I'm really on to something.
I caught a game against Stuart who is new to the club but has played Fantasy before (like a hundred years ago or something) so it was mostly a bit of a retraining exercise for him learning to play and a retraining exercise for remembering why Dwarfs suck. No, not suck. It's just so hard to kick some serious ass and control the game with Dwarfs. Problem is, even with a new army book (which will be out sometime in the next 25 years... one can but hope) I very much doubt they will change the movement value of 3. This is absolutely crucial to the nature of the race but at the same time, combined with the fact they have no monsters or cavalry and the only thing that can move decent distances is the Gyro, despite the fact they can always march the low movement really cripples the army. You really are forced to castle up and play defensively and pretty much anything else (including a Strollaz Rune setup with the pre-first turn 6" move) is just a variation on that theme.
Anyway the game was a massacre win to me despite my Cannon and Organ Gun exploding in classic reliable old Dwarf fashion (someone please explain why it feels like Skaven shooting is more reliable than Dwarf shooting please). This was definitely due in part to some good luck on balance, the relative inexperience of my opponent, and the ridiculous hardness of the Longbeards in a 1500pt game.
Still, having come from playing Lizardmen and Brettonians recently with their fantastic mobility and hard-hitting charges... well, Dwarfs are more than a little frustrating.
So Big Nick is running FluffyCon and, given the natural comp boost Dwarfs will get in this environment (see earlier and my "Dwarfs suck" comment) I thought it prudent to not only take advantage of the comp boost they are likely to receive by taking the army but, due to the nature of the "Hard Caps" at the event (and knowing as a result I won't be facing anything too heinous), I could run a slightly more adventurous list than might otherwise be possible.
Here is the list as it stands (with much playtesting to be done - everything that follows is theoryhammer I'm afraid):
Thane (General) - Runes of +1 str (str5), +1 attack (4 attacks total) and Always Strikes First, Rune of Stone, Shield (1+ save in combat)
Thane (BSB) - Runes of 1+ rerollable armour save, magic resistance (1), immune to fire
Dragonslayer
19 Longbeards - full command, rune of double unit strength, shields
20 Warriors - full command, shields
10 Longbeard Rangers - musician, shields, throwing axes, great weapons
10 Warriors - shields
10 Warriors - shields
10 Thunderers - no shields
10 Quarellers - no shields
15 Hammerers - full command, rune of immune to fear/terror, shields
10 Miners
Grudgethrower - rune of accuracy, rune of burning
Cannon - rune of burning
4DD and a magic resistance (1) character
2PD
125 models
2000pts exactly
Flicking through the list, a couple of things stand out:
- no Lord option
- no Runesmith (and therefore no scrolls or pool dispel dice)
- no Rare choices
- 53% is Core choices (7 Core choices in total)
- 11% magic items and runic tricksiness (difficult to keep this down I felt)
- Longbeard Rangers (!)
- 3 units of Warriors
For me the big part of the list is the Rangers and 2 small (10-man) Warrior units. My feeling here is to absorb the charge with the big blocks and counter attack with the smaller units. Alternatively the small Warrior blocks can bait and flee (as much as Dwarfs can) in order to setup the aforementioned counter-charges (they don't have musicians but they do rally on a '9' sp hopefully...). The Longbeard Rangers have the potential to be AWESOME - if they don't get shot up and magicked to bits. They are hideously expensive but a str5 stand-and-shoot reaction (str5!), great weapons or hand weapon/shield, and WS5/str4(6) in combat makes them actually quite versatile. And they can Scout although I don't expect they will ever be able to do so.
Hopefully I still have enough shooting to force my opponent to move and engage. The Cannon is there for the occasional big nasty and to take out chariots. The grudgethrower is there for anti-infantry, anti-heavy cav or counter-battery fire (good guess ranging and the scatter reroll makes this an awesome all-round warmachine).
I'll be playing a series of games over the next couple of months to figure out how the army works and whether my theories are just pipe-dreams or if I'm really on to something.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Brettonians 8 (Dead End)
Well yesterday saw my last game with Antony's Brettonians and what a game it was!!! Lezle is one of my favourite opponents - we don't actually play each other often (he jumps frequently between Fantasy, 40k and Mordheim) because he has a great sense of humour and an eye for the narrative side of the game. Straight away it was determined our two Generals (both mounted on flying monsters) would simply have to clash in the middle of the board in epic combat... man-a-mano. Lezle is a real life knight (well... he rides a horse - called Abby for ayone who's interested - and does sword-fighting and other knightly stuff) so I really felt like I had something to prove!
Lezle used a Vampire Counts army, again built with available miniatures and fun in mind but it's still VCs and as a result still effective and reliable. He had a fighty boss on Abyssal Terror (probably the worst option but you see, Lezle isn't fazed by that at all) with Hatred/Fury and Carstein Ring, 2 Dreadknight Vamps with Infinite Hatred and one had the Periapt, 2 Skellie blocks, Zombie block, Ghoul block, Graveguard block, 4 Wraiths and Banshee and the icing on the cake - 6 Blood Knights. I had painful recollections of the last time I played against Blood Knights. Hrm...
For two turns a unit of Mounted Yeoman bravely baited the Blood Knights on my extreme right flank, keeping them from making a right mess of... well, anything they touched really. Lezle was ready to charge his General (on the opposite flank from the Blood Knights) into the Realm bus with BSB until I explained what would happen (static 7, champion challenges, even with max overkill Vamp general loses by 2, next turn my general charges in - game over Vampire Counts). The two buses easily smashed up the Ghouls and a Skellie block with an accompanying Dreadknight Vamp but the resulting overruns put me waaay out of position and a reform in my turn resulted in the Realms charged by the Wraiths and the Errants charged by the Zombies (gah - tarpit hell). Meanwhile the Pegs and little Realm unit bounced off the Graveguard with the other Vampire after they were flanked by the second Skellie unit. Ouch.
The Blood Knights, having chased off the Yeoman, about-faced and headed towards the action in the middle of the board. A combined charge from the Grail Knights into the front and the Brett General into the rear of the Graveguard did for them; the Grails overran into some Skellies and mashed all of them but ONE (the unit champion) in Lezle's turn. They killed off the last one in mine but were then charged by the Blood Knights and, being unable to flee due to Immune to Psych (yay), died horribly. My General overran from the Graveguard towards the Vampire Lord on Abyssal Terror and it looked like we'd finally get our epic boss fight.
The Vamp Lord charged in and after Infinite Hatred and Red Fury had done it's work I needed to pass one ward save to keep him alive but it was not to be. In a twist of fate however the Hippogryph failed it's monster reaction test and promptly became Unbreakable. Lezle fluffed his rolls in the following turn and the Hippogryph started tearing the Abyssal Terror a new one. This combat was still going on when the Blood Knights plowed into the back of the Hippo.
The Realms eventually beat down the Wraiths (thanks to the BSB and his magical death stick) but only the BSB and Damsel survived. They charged into the flank of the Zombies which was finally enough to break them and wipe them out. This left the Errants with just enough time and space to charge the Blood Knights (who had just overrun into the Hippo) in the flank! Result!
In the final combat the Errants smushed some Blood Knights, the Hippo finally died but so did the Abyssal Terror. At the end of the game Lezle was left with his General on two wounds and 3 Blood Knights (still an astounding amount of points there!). I had the Errants above half, a Damsel and BSB, the Paladin leading the Errants (who challenged the VC general - thank-you Gromril Great Helm!), some Peasant Archers and a unit of Yeoman. As the peasant units both were holding table quarters I won by 450VPs so really it was a very close game!
What an outstanding end to the Brettonian saga! In my 8 games I've played a variety of opponents and armies. I've learnt lots about less familiar aspects of the game - some hard lessons for me (and some for my opponents - hehehe). Won some, lost some. Just how it should be.
Having spent quite some time "army whoring" (nice way of saying it Dave) I've decided to go back to my roots and once against castle up with the little bearded lads. Time to remind all and sundry how shooty and static-ressie stunties are. There are more than a few outstanding grudges to be called out so I'll be loading up the old Organ Gun once more and taking on the unwashed masses. Andrew's new Slanneshi Chaos Mortals army (with the mega - seriously these guys are HUGE - Knights of Dooom!) is high on the list.
And while I'm distracting the unwary with Dwarfy killiness... the Vampire Counts get closer and closer to completion. Bwahahahahaha!
Thanks to all the people I played with Brettonians. Your patience (and knowledge) helped me out immensely. Maybe next time I have to face Brettonians I won't wet myself in absolute terror. As long as the next time I play them I'm not facing Marcello maybe I'll be ok :-)
Lezle used a Vampire Counts army, again built with available miniatures and fun in mind but it's still VCs and as a result still effective and reliable. He had a fighty boss on Abyssal Terror (probably the worst option but you see, Lezle isn't fazed by that at all) with Hatred/Fury and Carstein Ring, 2 Dreadknight Vamps with Infinite Hatred and one had the Periapt, 2 Skellie blocks, Zombie block, Ghoul block, Graveguard block, 4 Wraiths and Banshee and the icing on the cake - 6 Blood Knights. I had painful recollections of the last time I played against Blood Knights. Hrm...
For two turns a unit of Mounted Yeoman bravely baited the Blood Knights on my extreme right flank, keeping them from making a right mess of... well, anything they touched really. Lezle was ready to charge his General (on the opposite flank from the Blood Knights) into the Realm bus with BSB until I explained what would happen (static 7, champion challenges, even with max overkill Vamp general loses by 2, next turn my general charges in - game over Vampire Counts). The two buses easily smashed up the Ghouls and a Skellie block with an accompanying Dreadknight Vamp but the resulting overruns put me waaay out of position and a reform in my turn resulted in the Realms charged by the Wraiths and the Errants charged by the Zombies (gah - tarpit hell). Meanwhile the Pegs and little Realm unit bounced off the Graveguard with the other Vampire after they were flanked by the second Skellie unit. Ouch.
The Blood Knights, having chased off the Yeoman, about-faced and headed towards the action in the middle of the board. A combined charge from the Grail Knights into the front and the Brett General into the rear of the Graveguard did for them; the Grails overran into some Skellies and mashed all of them but ONE (the unit champion) in Lezle's turn. They killed off the last one in mine but were then charged by the Blood Knights and, being unable to flee due to Immune to Psych (yay), died horribly. My General overran from the Graveguard towards the Vampire Lord on Abyssal Terror and it looked like we'd finally get our epic boss fight.
The Vamp Lord charged in and after Infinite Hatred and Red Fury had done it's work I needed to pass one ward save to keep him alive but it was not to be. In a twist of fate however the Hippogryph failed it's monster reaction test and promptly became Unbreakable. Lezle fluffed his rolls in the following turn and the Hippogryph started tearing the Abyssal Terror a new one. This combat was still going on when the Blood Knights plowed into the back of the Hippo.
The Realms eventually beat down the Wraiths (thanks to the BSB and his magical death stick) but only the BSB and Damsel survived. They charged into the flank of the Zombies which was finally enough to break them and wipe them out. This left the Errants with just enough time and space to charge the Blood Knights (who had just overrun into the Hippo) in the flank! Result!
In the final combat the Errants smushed some Blood Knights, the Hippo finally died but so did the Abyssal Terror. At the end of the game Lezle was left with his General on two wounds and 3 Blood Knights (still an astounding amount of points there!). I had the Errants above half, a Damsel and BSB, the Paladin leading the Errants (who challenged the VC general - thank-you Gromril Great Helm!), some Peasant Archers and a unit of Yeoman. As the peasant units both were holding table quarters I won by 450VPs so really it was a very close game!
What an outstanding end to the Brettonian saga! In my 8 games I've played a variety of opponents and armies. I've learnt lots about less familiar aspects of the game - some hard lessons for me (and some for my opponents - hehehe). Won some, lost some. Just how it should be.
Having spent quite some time "army whoring" (nice way of saying it Dave) I've decided to go back to my roots and once against castle up with the little bearded lads. Time to remind all and sundry how shooty and static-ressie stunties are. There are more than a few outstanding grudges to be called out so I'll be loading up the old Organ Gun once more and taking on the unwashed masses. Andrew's new Slanneshi Chaos Mortals army (with the mega - seriously these guys are HUGE - Knights of Dooom!) is high on the list.
And while I'm distracting the unwary with Dwarfy killiness... the Vampire Counts get closer and closer to completion. Bwahahahahaha!
Thanks to all the people I played with Brettonians. Your patience (and knowledge) helped me out immensely. Maybe next time I have to face Brettonians I won't wet myself in absolute terror. As long as the next time I play them I'm not facing Marcello maybe I'll be ok :-)
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Brettonians 7 (Grimlock smash!)
Actually that's a bit misleading because I wasn't playing Empire (with a Mace of Helstrum wielding Arch-Lector), I was playing Dave's/Doug's/Dan's Ogres. Still felt like Grimlock smash! though.
I learnt in this game (I would like to remind you dear reader that yes, I am still learning how to play this game) the value of being able to "out-chaff" your opponent. I was severely out-chaffed.
Dave had an excellent plan that saw all his Leadbelcher bait on one flank, the Hunter and Gnoblars on the other (2 units of Trappers using his Ld9 in the same manner as a General!) and most everything else in the middle. As he mentioned afterwards, having 3 immune to panic units in the centre (Slave Giant, Maneaters, Ironguts with BSB rerolling psych tests - essentially immune) is a most helpful buff to the army overall. The Leadbelchers swept majestically down my left flank, shot up the Grail Knights and promptly parked themselves in the way of my strike units (the 2 9-strong lance formations). Charge them - they flee. Stay - get shot and/or the rest of the army closes for the charge. Result? Out-chaffed.
So where were the Men-At-Arms and Yeoman and the little Realms? Faffing about trying to beat up the Gnoblar block and Trappers! They promptly did this (a later charge and overrun saw off one of the Trapper units and the Sabretusks) but were then forced to charge the Ironguts and their BSB mate. Despite the Men-At-Arms hitting their flank at the same time the writing was on the wall and the following turn both units were smashed.
The Brett General threw himself away trying to charge some Bulls who fled. Hunter in the flank = dead Large Target on a stick mate. Hippogryphs are NOT Dragons. Lesson learnt, tick that box.
The Peg Knights were very nearly knights of the match. After taking a charge from the Maneaters and accompanying Butcher and General (and only losing one wound) they fled and rallied. Fled their charge the second time. Rallied and charged them, winning by 2 (!!!) but failing to break them (Maneaters are Stubborn etc). Curses. We reckoned that would have been something like a 1000pt swing (Maneaters, General, Butcher, General-killing bonus, and the two banners they captured earlier) but it just wasn't to be. A surviving Peg broke in the last turn but rallied in mine so at least they survived (albeit below half strength). And even if I had beat them (which would have been damn awesome) I still would have lost by around 400-500pts at least.
Ouch.
So a hard lesson against a better player but then games against Dave are always highly educational and enjoyable (and much appreciated - thanks mate for giving me a call and coming over!).
This afternoon's game against Lezle's Vampire Counts should be interesting. Failed Fear and Terror checks playing the Ogres have me wondering how I might fare against one of the army masters of all fear-causers. Lezle's Lord flies around (quite bravely) on an Abyssal Terror. So... how about a bit of one-on-one boss killing action Lezle? :-) We're definitely going to have some Knight-on-Knight action and I know from experience how hard Blood Knights are!
Oh yeah... woopah! 50 posts!
I learnt in this game (I would like to remind you dear reader that yes, I am still learning how to play this game) the value of being able to "out-chaff" your opponent. I was severely out-chaffed.
Dave had an excellent plan that saw all his Leadbelcher bait on one flank, the Hunter and Gnoblars on the other (2 units of Trappers using his Ld9 in the same manner as a General!) and most everything else in the middle. As he mentioned afterwards, having 3 immune to panic units in the centre (Slave Giant, Maneaters, Ironguts with BSB rerolling psych tests - essentially immune) is a most helpful buff to the army overall. The Leadbelchers swept majestically down my left flank, shot up the Grail Knights and promptly parked themselves in the way of my strike units (the 2 9-strong lance formations). Charge them - they flee. Stay - get shot and/or the rest of the army closes for the charge. Result? Out-chaffed.
So where were the Men-At-Arms and Yeoman and the little Realms? Faffing about trying to beat up the Gnoblar block and Trappers! They promptly did this (a later charge and overrun saw off one of the Trapper units and the Sabretusks) but were then forced to charge the Ironguts and their BSB mate. Despite the Men-At-Arms hitting their flank at the same time the writing was on the wall and the following turn both units were smashed.
The Brett General threw himself away trying to charge some Bulls who fled. Hunter in the flank = dead Large Target on a stick mate. Hippogryphs are NOT Dragons. Lesson learnt, tick that box.
The Peg Knights were very nearly knights of the match. After taking a charge from the Maneaters and accompanying Butcher and General (and only losing one wound) they fled and rallied. Fled their charge the second time. Rallied and charged them, winning by 2 (!!!) but failing to break them (Maneaters are Stubborn etc). Curses. We reckoned that would have been something like a 1000pt swing (Maneaters, General, Butcher, General-killing bonus, and the two banners they captured earlier) but it just wasn't to be. A surviving Peg broke in the last turn but rallied in mine so at least they survived (albeit below half strength). And even if I had beat them (which would have been damn awesome) I still would have lost by around 400-500pts at least.
Ouch.
So a hard lesson against a better player but then games against Dave are always highly educational and enjoyable (and much appreciated - thanks mate for giving me a call and coming over!).
This afternoon's game against Lezle's Vampire Counts should be interesting. Failed Fear and Terror checks playing the Ogres have me wondering how I might fare against one of the army masters of all fear-causers. Lezle's Lord flies around (quite bravely) on an Abyssal Terror. So... how about a bit of one-on-one boss killing action Lezle? :-) We're definitely going to have some Knight-on-Knight action and I know from experience how hard Blood Knights are!
Oh yeah... woopah! 50 posts!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Battlecry 2009
The Lads - led by The Venerable, Old and Wise Nick Buckby - have been discussing the possibility of a WHFB tournament at Battlecry in February. Excellent. The draft player's pack looks great too.
Word on the street is that the points cap will be 2K and despite the fun I'm having with the Knights I getting a hankering for a return to Stuntyville. The possible changes from my 2250pt list are rather simple but I might take the opportunity to try a few other things out. The biggest (and easiest) change is to just take out the Dwarf Lord on Shieldbearers. For a 2000pt game he's really a giant points sink I can't afford (something like 280pts if I remember correctly). This won't worry the Dwarfs too much as they will still be Ld9 - a huge advantage for an army not taking a Lord option, although it doesn substantially reduce killing power in combat. If I drop some Hammerers (slightly less reliable without the Lord) I could slot in a Slayer character which could be amusing, or another Thane to act as a General (instead of the Runesmith).
The other interesting thing about the Battlecry tournament is the 'hard cap' that will be applied to lists before they are actually comp-scored. In a way this is like objective comp scoring but it's more like a first step before a subjective process. Examples of the hard cap include no duplicate Rares, max 44 models with shooting capability and so on. A great idea I think as one of the reasons for the tournament is to encourage new players into the scene (and softer/friendlier armies are a way of doing this).
All in all I'm very excited about the prospect of a 2ooopt tournament. OTT (Over-The-Top) is down in Hamilton the week before Battlecry and I think I'll take Bretts to that so they get at least one run in a tournament next year.
Word on the street is that the points cap will be 2K and despite the fun I'm having with the Knights I getting a hankering for a return to Stuntyville. The possible changes from my 2250pt list are rather simple but I might take the opportunity to try a few other things out. The biggest (and easiest) change is to just take out the Dwarf Lord on Shieldbearers. For a 2000pt game he's really a giant points sink I can't afford (something like 280pts if I remember correctly). This won't worry the Dwarfs too much as they will still be Ld9 - a huge advantage for an army not taking a Lord option, although it doesn substantially reduce killing power in combat. If I drop some Hammerers (slightly less reliable without the Lord) I could slot in a Slayer character which could be amusing, or another Thane to act as a General (instead of the Runesmith).
The other interesting thing about the Battlecry tournament is the 'hard cap' that will be applied to lists before they are actually comp-scored. In a way this is like objective comp scoring but it's more like a first step before a subjective process. Examples of the hard cap include no duplicate Rares, max 44 models with shooting capability and so on. A great idea I think as one of the reasons for the tournament is to encourage new players into the scene (and softer/friendlier armies are a way of doing this).
All in all I'm very excited about the prospect of a 2ooopt tournament. OTT (Over-The-Top) is down in Hamilton the week before Battlecry and I think I'll take Bretts to that so they get at least one run in a tournament next year.
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