More on the "half games" shortly.
The exceedingly talented and generous Nick Ng, having put together my custom movement trays as only an OCD Engineering Master can dropped them off last week and also dropped himself off for a game. This time a much more consistent and focused list with some familiar choices. Nick fielded:
Seer - Skalm, 2 Scrolls
BSB Chieftain - Warpstone Armour (reflects saved wounds)
Plague Priest - Pendant (5+ ward), Furnace
24 Clanrats - FC and Doomflayer
Same again
24 Stormvermin - FC, Warbanner
6 Giant Rats/Packmaster
Same again
20 Slaves - Muso
Again
Again
... Again
5 Gutter Runners - Slings
25 Plaguemonks - Standard, Banner of triple marching badness
7 Censers
Same again
Doomwheel
Warp Lightning Cannon
The game was characterised by magic - or rather the fact that neither of us could go a magic phase without miscasting at least once. In fact Nick miscast twice in two turns! First up I lost Wind of Undeath and a level. Then Nick took a wound. Then I gave him a free spell (fecking Scorch). Then he lost Warp Lightning. At this point I resorted to micro-casting out of sheer paranoia. Nick went on to lose Death Frenzy and Scorch - at the end of the game he was left with a Level 2 Seer with the highly threatening Skitterleap!
Painful experience (both my own and watching other games) suggests it's "bad" to let the Furnace rumble you wherever it wants so priority one was locking down that unit in combat in the flank. Nick and I went through our usual cagey opening turns of the Varghulf trying to catch the Censers and the Slaves getting in the way and being a right pain in the arse. A solo charge from my General into one unit of Censer Bearers caught Nick off-guard, they were butchered (partly by themselves from gas attacks) and the Vamp Boss overran behind a hill, forcing the Warp Lightning Cannon to flee (but just manage to stay on the table). The other Censer Bearers (derived of the Vampire General - Nick was hoping to stay in the first combat thanks to being Stubborn in close proximity to the Plaguemonks) went into the Varghulf - they 1/2 gassed themselves to death and the Varghulf ate the rest, chasing off the Doomflayers and copping a Doomwheel in his side for his troubles.
The Plaguetrain got clear of this mess and charged some Skellies but got bogged down. The Grave Guard and Wraiths needed no further invitation and spent the rest of the game chewing through the unit, finally killing the last of them in the final combat. The Doomwheel, having eaten the Varghulf in a couple of rounds (I got lucky with some Regen from shooting), hit the Grave Guard who were overhanging from the Monks but got soundly thrashed and fled. Freshly charged by another Skeleton unit it was beaten and caught.
The Strigoi Knights spent 3 very embarassing turns (6 rounds of combat) against one unit of Slaves who refused to be hit, die or flee. In the last turn, with the Stormvermin having hit the overhanging Grave Guard they went into the front and caused immense damage, chasing off that unit and capturing two standards.
After mucking around on the other flank the Unbarded Knights charged the Gutter Runners, fluffed, and were chopped from the saddle in reply!
End-game and Nick had the two Clanrat units, some Slaves and the Gutter Runners still going where I'd lost some Skellies, Wolves, Unbarded Knights and the Varghulf. A fairly convincing 15-5 win again characterised by dodgy dice in the magic phase.
Friday night and some of the lads got together at Ray's for a probably final stoush before DogCon. I drew Ray's Dark Elves first up. Winning first turn I motored across the field hell for leather. The cheeky Manticore tempted in my Unbarded Knights and I clocked up a Killing Blow, running down the poor Manti-Cow at the end of the combat. A buffed unit of Zombies held against the charge of two Cold One Chariots (one Zombie survived!) allowing the General and a unit of Skellies to get in and break them both, pursue into some Spearmen and cut them to ribbons.
We called the game at the end of turn 4 with the unharmed Varghulf about the eat the last Bolt Thrower and the last unit of Shades about to take a magical charge from the Vampire General and some Dire Wolves.
I think Ray was quite surprised at how fast the army moved - he had basically two turns to act. Not quite managing to get the Zombies really propelled my Skeletons and General into his stuff (the overrun to the Spearmen saved me a turn of movement).
On the table next to us Reid was taking on Paul Davison's Skaven. All looked in control until a cleverly rallied unit of Giant Rats allowed a Plaguetrain to charge some Ghouls and the Vampire General. Winning by 10 or so the whole unit (and character) exploded and it was downhill from there. We switched tables and I got ready to play Skaven. Again.
Paul's list had three interesting features.
1) Hell Pit Abomination. Good to face one because I don't have an immediate answer in my list (no Flaming Attacks etc)
2) Slaves with Slings (lots of shots at close range!)
3) Four casters = crapload of magic
I took a hammering from magic as expected and the game eventually came down to a charge from the Grave Guard and some Wolves into the flank of the HPA. I won on static res and of course Paul failed the Stubborn test. Great - solution to the HPA? Dumb luck. Nice.
The Plaguetrain (yes this list had one as well) was tackled by the Varghulf and Wraiths in the flank and eaten up.
The big surprise (for Paul) was one surviving Grave Guard model (with the Warbanner), the BSB and the General slingshotting into his Clanrats bunkering the Seer. One short and very brutal round of combat later and the Seer was a pile of blood soaked rags on the floor and the rats were off. This placed me in the unfortunate position of getting my General flank-charged by some Censer Bearers. True to form of the four that could attack 3 gassed themselves to death and the last one missed or failed to wound. The Vampire didn't miss and this caused a wandering Warlock to Panic off the board.
Last straw was the Doomwheel (yes there was one of those TOO!) charging the untouched Strigoi Knights on a hill in the last turn, causing NO wounds with either shooting OR combat, breaking and being run down.
It's a game of skill.
Half Games
Monday and Tuesday night Reid and I lined up against each other for a couple of half games - 3 turns of play and some theoryhammering of how the battle has gone up to that point.
I was up first playing a spam-casting WoC list with ASF Giant and mostly Slanneshi-marked stuff. The Giant was giving me a headache and I deployed the Wraiths poorly due to all the magic missile death bearing down on them. At the end of turn three I had one flank and the centre sewn up - some Khorne Ogres baited into Wolves overrunning into the Wraiths, and a chariot only having Wraiths as a charging option. On my right though two units of Knights and the Giant looked to be ready to eat the Varghulf and take on my General and a Skellie block. Very iffy game and the WoC list played well with a very efficient magic phase.
The second half-game was against a hellish Dark Elf list with 8PD and more shooting than you can throw a Wood Elf at. Simply awful. I belted forward with no other options. Lost the Varghulf early due to a stupid unsupported move that saw him get shot up. Managed a charge on the Hydra with the Grave Guard but couldn't break it and sucked down a flank charge from RXB Elves. Took them a while but they were getting through the Grave Guard nicely.
Elsewhere I had the Chariots in combat with Unbarded Knights and the Wraiths but it wasn't very convincing.
Tough list and the next night we resolved to turn the tables.
Game one using the Warriors against Reid's Vampires. A fun list for sure, especially when Pandemonium goes off and your Nurgle Sorcerer is pretending to be a magical stone thrower shelling Black Knights. I was cramped by a forest so after baiting the Black Knights in with some Slanneshi Knights (who fled) I hit them with Khorne Ogres but only contacted with two. The Giant and Chariot combo-charged into a Ghoul block but weren't coming up aces and Bats were annoying the hell out of my other Knights. On the flip side it certainly wasn't all going the Vampire's way and giving the comp break the Warriors get I felt pretty good about where things ended up.
Game two and I was relishing breaking out this horrific Dark Elf army. I had this one in the bag until two Ghouls charging the Hydra turned into 21 Ghouls charging the Hydra. Hydra fluffs and gets run down along with some RXBs who flee 3 inches. Varghulf also had the Dark Elf BSB and some more RXBs sorted. Good news though was that while this was going on the two chariots had broken through Zombies in one turn and come round the back of the Vampire General's unit. Faced with that threat the unit had to turn around and couldn't Van Hel's because it was too busy repairing casualties. We stopped the game before the charge went off but two Chariots and some magical goodness like Word of Pain and/or Steal Soul could have spelt doom for the Vampire army. Great fun and a learning experience for both of us in terms of an army we'd like to NOT face at DogCon :)
Heading off on Tuesday. The army is nearly finished (at least to a reasonable standard - won't be winning any awards; we'll leave that to Phil). Hoping to get some games in against the local.
There's also the small and insignificant matter of thrashing the Aussies in the Warhammer Bledisloe on Saturday night. Can't see us breaking a sweat against the B-Team led by the White Weasel Denison. Check out this thread for a fun discussion - Sledgehammer (http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=86897)
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Why not Ghouls?
I've been asked why I've taken Skeletons over Ghouls. Here are the reasons:
- Skellies "comp" better than Ghouls due to a perceived difference in their awesomeness
Ghouls are mad good for 8 points. Toughness 4, 2 (!) poisoned attacks each, as easy to raise as Skellies and of course you can get the Raise Ghouls power for more fun. Plus Ghoulkin if you want to be really dirty. By comparison the poor little bony dudes get a 4+ save from hand weapon/shield in combat and the ability to take a unit standard.
So Ghouls are better overall (assumed casualties caused might outweigh the pros - and cons - of a unit standard) in most scenarios. They give big stuff the willies (eat Giants for breakfast with the poisoned attacks). Given the horror that is the rest of my list I felt Skellies would be a more reasonable choice. I've gone the 'wall of bone' option - hit combat and grind while looking for strike options with faster stuff on the flanks.
- Skellies can take magic standards which might be important later on (I plan on sticking with Vampires long-term so will continue collecting and diversifying my lists)
This actually came up as a strong potential for DogCon - give a unit of Skellies the Flaming attacks banner or the extra combat res for 4 ranks banner. The point of the Flaming banner is not to give the Skeletons Flaming attacks. It's to give the Vampires bunkering in the unit Flaming attacks!
- I bought a bunch of Skellies
At NatCon earlier this year there was a lot of stuff on sale and the bring and buy and I picked up a LOT of Skeleton models from various ranges and editions. Made sense to go with Skeletons from a financial standpoint.
- I hate the Ghoul models
The most pressing issue - I don't like the look of the Ghoul models. I have no doubt I'll paint some Ghouls up at some point but it won't be the GW ones which means I'll have to look around (hard) for something appropriate. Definitely not in a hurry to do that when I've got so much more on the painting table after DogCon (Blood Knights, Corpse Cart, more Zombies, more characters, Winged Nightmare/Abyssal Terror).
- Skellies "comp" better than Ghouls due to a perceived difference in their awesomeness
Ghouls are mad good for 8 points. Toughness 4, 2 (!) poisoned attacks each, as easy to raise as Skellies and of course you can get the Raise Ghouls power for more fun. Plus Ghoulkin if you want to be really dirty. By comparison the poor little bony dudes get a 4+ save from hand weapon/shield in combat and the ability to take a unit standard.
So Ghouls are better overall (assumed casualties caused might outweigh the pros - and cons - of a unit standard) in most scenarios. They give big stuff the willies (eat Giants for breakfast with the poisoned attacks). Given the horror that is the rest of my list I felt Skellies would be a more reasonable choice. I've gone the 'wall of bone' option - hit combat and grind while looking for strike options with faster stuff on the flanks.
- Skellies can take magic standards which might be important later on (I plan on sticking with Vampires long-term so will continue collecting and diversifying my lists)
This actually came up as a strong potential for DogCon - give a unit of Skellies the Flaming attacks banner or the extra combat res for 4 ranks banner. The point of the Flaming banner is not to give the Skeletons Flaming attacks. It's to give the Vampires bunkering in the unit Flaming attacks!
- I bought a bunch of Skellies
At NatCon earlier this year there was a lot of stuff on sale and the bring and buy and I picked up a LOT of Skeleton models from various ranges and editions. Made sense to go with Skeletons from a financial standpoint.
- I hate the Ghoul models
The most pressing issue - I don't like the look of the Ghoul models. I have no doubt I'll paint some Ghouls up at some point but it won't be the GW ones which means I'll have to look around (hard) for something appropriate. Definitely not in a hurry to do that when I've got so much more on the painting table after DogCon (Blood Knights, Corpse Cart, more Zombies, more characters, Winged Nightmare/Abyssal Terror).
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Captain Nick's Equinox Elves
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 :)
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 :)
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 :)
Saturday, June 6, 2009
The Fields of Blood - bwahahahahahahaha...
Auckland will be awash with gore and spare body parts come late-September!
I'm running a Fantasy tournament as part of the annual City Guard "GuardCon" gaming convention called Fields of Blood. Looks like it's going to be a real ripper of an event with substantial player attendance forecast - looks to not only be the biggest Fantasy event on the gaming calendar but also potentially the biggest Fantasy tournament that NZ has ever had!
26th and 27th September at Takapuna Grammar School here in Auckland. If you haven't requested a registration and player's pack let me know. Flick an email through to:
fieldsofblood2009@gmail.com
2250pts, 6 rounds, fully painted armies only, tiered 8-judge panel composition system.
Check out http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=73641 for updates.
I'm running a Fantasy tournament as part of the annual City Guard "GuardCon" gaming convention called Fields of Blood. Looks like it's going to be a real ripper of an event with substantial player attendance forecast - looks to not only be the biggest Fantasy event on the gaming calendar but also potentially the biggest Fantasy tournament that NZ has ever had!
26th and 27th September at Takapuna Grammar School here in Auckland. If you haven't requested a registration and player's pack let me know. Flick an email through to:
fieldsofblood2009@gmail.com
2250pts, 6 rounds, fully painted armies only, tiered 8-judge panel composition system.
Check out http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=73641 for updates.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Experiences using Daemons and VCs
Continuing with my habit of "borrowing" other people's armies I caught up with NZs own Skeletor - Glen Tibbles - for a couple of games using one of Reid's Daemons lists. Despite losing a big unit of Plaguebearers and Nurgle Herald to an horrific charge by a unit of Blood Knights with Hellfire Banner I came away with a comfortable win with just the VC General surviving the engagement. The night was young so Skellie cranked out more Skellies - this time the accursed Tomb Kings. Was sweating it as usual against TKs, losing a unit of Fiends to a chariot charge before a unit of Flesh Hounds at some Skeleton Archers and the Tomb King himself thank to some impressive ward-saving (and some poor luck on Glen's part). A short while later they were munching through the rest of the army and he had no answer to that or the Plaguebearers regenning the Chariot's attacks, or the Flamers barbecuing whatever they touched. Or the Bloodletters tearing the Bone Giant a new one. Brutal game.
Then I grabbed Ray's Daemons that he's using for Tin Soldiers. Ray and I had a already had a couple of games - one where he'd massacred a Warriors of Chaos list I'd thrown together (now there's an army book you need to practice with!) and one where I'd beaten him down with the dirty Runefang Dark Elf list. Thought I fancied my chances using the Daemons against Pommy Dave's Tin Soldier list (the High Elves masquerading as Wood Elves thing). Boy how wrong was I! Butchered pretty badly, only the Plaguebearers surived that little encounter! What really caught me was the lack of cheap redirectors and chasing units in Ray's list. I'd be a fan of having a couple of solo Fiends for those two jobs.
Next on the list of things to do was play Ray's Tin Soldier 2 Daemons using Reid's TS2 VCs - not a good matchup for the Vampires in this particular instance. Despite the bad matchup the Vampires walked away with a solid victory - the Daemons being left with 1 and 1/2 Flesh Hound (that's models, not units) in the end. What really made the game was a fresh and rather enormous unit of Zombies springing up which not only trapped some Flesh Hounds in combat but got right in the way of the Nurgle block who couldn't get into the action quick enough. By the time they touched something (Grave Guard) they were surrounded and the combat ended with Hellfire Banner Black Knights in the side, Ghouls in the rear and Grave Guard (and VC General in the front). Plaguebearers lost by 9 or so at one point and poof! Gone burger.
Last night it was decided Reid had better get a least one game in with his army before TS2 so he threw down against those damn dirty Dark Elves again. The Darkies put in a sterling effort and considerable overtime and the VCs were left with the Grave Guard and annoyingly unkillable Black Knights (and a BIG unit of raised Zombies). I'd lost the Black Guard and some Crossbowmen but looked on the board like a 15-5 win or thereabouts. This is all excellent stuff as I move closer to building/having/fielding my ownVC army later this year in preparation for DogCon 2010. Beating Reid is always pretty sweet too - once in a blue moon type stuff for me and a victory to savour :) I think he's got me 3-2 at the moment and one of those wins to me was sheer dumb luck (Empire vs Orcs - an unrecorded FluffyCon practice game where he failed a ld9 test in the last turn and a bunch of stuff ran off; basically I was on the ropes big time and the dice turned it around).
Then I grabbed Ray's Daemons that he's using for Tin Soldiers. Ray and I had a already had a couple of games - one where he'd massacred a Warriors of Chaos list I'd thrown together (now there's an army book you need to practice with!) and one where I'd beaten him down with the dirty Runefang Dark Elf list. Thought I fancied my chances using the Daemons against Pommy Dave's Tin Soldier list (the High Elves masquerading as Wood Elves thing). Boy how wrong was I! Butchered pretty badly, only the Plaguebearers surived that little encounter! What really caught me was the lack of cheap redirectors and chasing units in Ray's list. I'd be a fan of having a couple of solo Fiends for those two jobs.
Next on the list of things to do was play Ray's Tin Soldier 2 Daemons using Reid's TS2 VCs - not a good matchup for the Vampires in this particular instance. Despite the bad matchup the Vampires walked away with a solid victory - the Daemons being left with 1 and 1/2 Flesh Hound (that's models, not units) in the end. What really made the game was a fresh and rather enormous unit of Zombies springing up which not only trapped some Flesh Hounds in combat but got right in the way of the Nurgle block who couldn't get into the action quick enough. By the time they touched something (Grave Guard) they were surrounded and the combat ended with Hellfire Banner Black Knights in the side, Ghouls in the rear and Grave Guard (and VC General in the front). Plaguebearers lost by 9 or so at one point and poof! Gone burger.
Last night it was decided Reid had better get a least one game in with his army before TS2 so he threw down against those damn dirty Dark Elves again. The Darkies put in a sterling effort and considerable overtime and the VCs were left with the Grave Guard and annoyingly unkillable Black Knights (and a BIG unit of raised Zombies). I'd lost the Black Guard and some Crossbowmen but looked on the board like a 15-5 win or thereabouts. This is all excellent stuff as I move closer to building/having/fielding my ownVC army later this year in preparation for DogCon 2010. Beating Reid is always pretty sweet too - once in a blue moon type stuff for me and a victory to savour :) I think he's got me 3-2 at the moment and one of those wins to me was sheer dumb luck (Empire vs Orcs - an unrecorded FluffyCon practice game where he failed a ld9 test in the last turn and a bunch of stuff ran off; basically I was on the ropes big time and the dice turned it around).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)