Monday 29 April 2013

Tiers of Joy

As I sit and wait for time to pass by in the usual ritual of waiting at hospitals I thought if take my mind away and pen down some thoughts that have arisen today as a result of a text debate that almost felt heated between myself and a mate.

Tiers.

Guaranteed to get a different response from every gamer depending on their army and experiences and the meta they play in.

I thought I'd break down my ranks based in my armies.

First, from my Tomb Kings perspective:

Lizardmen
Dark Elves
Skaven
--------
Demons
Wood Elves
Ogres
--------
Orcs and Goblins
Empire
--------
Beastmen
Bretonnia
WoC infantry

So why the top tier? Lizardmen, skaven and dark elves can easily own the magic phase and that's just something that TK need to be able to do almost uncontested! That skinks and RXBows can with our fragile troops down with ease makes it even worse. Lizardmen are top as you can tell from my batreps, they're really touch to beat in combat once they get their inevitable buffs up!

Bottom tier? May surprise a few, but the tomb guard halberd horde lists I run generally eat brets and WoC infantry lists for breakfast and I find I can hold the Beastmen back long enough to whittle them down!

In between ate the armies that give me grief but can be overcome with a solid gameplay and the usual tk tactic of...luck

So from an ogre perspective:

Lizardmen
Skaven
WoC
Dark elves
--------
Orcs n Goblin
Demons
--------
Empire
Tomb kings
Beastmen
--------

--------
Keep going....
--------
...wood elves

Top tier again can chew through me. Skinks don't care for toughness and the combat buffs can really wreck your day! Not to mention the panic inducing sallies!

Skaven can be intense and WoC can blend you into a froth!

The bottom is the lonely wood elves who I can always seemingly get into combat and mulch far to quick!

Ogres don't have easy though which bore the focus of my aforementioned text conversation! There's just too much access to death magic and cannons now. Ogres were top tier when they came out but empire do everything ogres do...but better or cheaper and have now of the drawbacks (low as, low I). Then WoC came and did it even better (skullcrushers and chariots spam...not to mention unkillable lords and DPs)

Now the next one is how I anticipate looking at it from a high elves perspective:

Lizardmen
Skaven
Empire
--------
Tomb Kings
WoC
Orcs and goblins
--------
Dark elves
Beastmen
--------
Bretonnia
Wood elves
Demons

The big #mayGWwhine is that the banner of the world dragon will be bent and will make HE vs demons an obsolete worthless match up...oh noes!

Brets will still get dicked on by white lions and wood elves won't be able to wound shit with their magical attacks meaning one of the few lists that wood elves could reliably win has gone!

The usual suspects will still put a dint I the all important magic phase though! We don't appear to have any spells that can bounce through armies with lots of drops and that is gonna make it STILL tough against lizzies and skaven!

You'll notice I've missed out chaos dwarves and vampires from these rankings...I really haven't played against them enough to get an honest feel for them...

Overall...lizzies, skaven and dark elves are still top...(the 7th ed filth hangover), followed by the 8th ed top of WoC, ogres and empire. Orcs, brets and vamps are sitting pretty in the middle and everyone is being propped up by woodies, tomb kings and Beastmen!!

Thursday 25 April 2013

Loremaster of Hoeth

So I've never felt as much excitement for a new book as the upcoming high elves one!

I've been thinking a lot about one model in particular and that is the new loremaster of Hoeth. In case you're unaware he is said to be a level 2 lord who has the combat skills of a noble fighter but knows ALL signature spells!!!

I've been thinking he will form part of whatever armies I come up with.

My first thought was a large Hoeth themed force with masses of sword masters....

Nothing inspiring there right?

But then I realised that silver helms are said to be core now!

So now I'm thinking silver helm bus with combat lord, bsb and this loremaster of Hoeth in there.

He would be able to cast wyssans cheaply enough (due to being cavalry) on his own unit to give t4 2+!

He would have a ld10 spirit leech being delivered from within all that protection that can move 16"!

Playing demons or undead? No prob...here's a quick banishment!

Vampire counts bringing the ethereal love? Fireball their asses!

Bit of earth blood for a tasty ward...

And because NONE of this has eaten into my special...ill have 2 units of dragon princes for flank protection and two pheonix a in rare to make sure I'm in their face immediately!

Monday 22 April 2013

My high elves rules

So things I've heard which you can choose to believe as, well, what you like.

Sisters of aver lorn are the ones with magic bows...not normal archers!

The 2 pheonix varieties (ice and flame) can be ridden or unridden and have a rule that "atunes" them to the winds of magic roll! They can end up with a 4++!

Sword masters and white lions retain ASF

The lore master of hoeth is real. He knows all the signature spells! This is the most epic shit ever!

Shield of saphery is now the high magic lore attribute an gives a 6++ to a unit which has an augment cast on it...cast 2 buffs? Get a 5++ etc!!

Reavers, shadow warriors and chariots in core!

Never felt so much excitement for a book!!!

Sunday 21 April 2013

Warhammer World Tournament

So the two weeks of incessant painting was totally worth it and i had a blast!

Below are the three YouTube battle reports i made of the day.

Game 1 - Wood Elves
I hate Wood Elves due to their ability to wither you dow and seemingly avoid you at all costs! Zi's list has many more drops than mine and is becoming a master of deployment - regularly outdeploying me and making it an uphill struggle from the start! This coupled with Tomb Kings notoriously poor movement phase had me very concerned!

Game 2 - Empire
Johns Hellblaster absolutely shredded my chariot unit in a test game we had so i was rightfully terrified of it going into this. I knew i had his number on the Inner Circle Knights but the Demigryph Knights presented me with something i couldn't quite reliably counter.

NB - i cocked up the "Crumbling" FAQ during this game*


Game 3 - Beastmen
Beastmen have no shooting and so my lack of mobility wasn't as worrying in this. The thought of a horde of Bestigor and horde of Minotaurs does though!!



Final Thoughts and Results
Well i won...all three games!!! Honestly only expected to have a proper go at Rory's Beastmen but was really shocked to have won!

Against Zi (Woodies), i actually felt that for the first time i'd got the jump on him in deployment and was quite happy to allow the sphinx to be arrow fodder whilst i chipped away at what are usually an abundance of anoying chaff.

He made absolutely piss poor rolls and i was quite fortunate (a theme that would continue throughout the day)

Against John (Empire), i think i played tactically smart, not commiting to anything until the Hellblaster was taken care of. At the time i thought i was lucky to have been offered up the flank of the chicken riders but after learning i'd played the crumbling FAQ wrong (cant overrun but CAN reform!) it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth as no one wants to claim a victory from accidentaly cheating! I'd have still charged and done said wounds, the question then arises as to whether 2 demi's would've done enough to my fully buffed chariots to negate the 4 impact hits i did...i'm thinking ...likely!

Shame.

Against Rory (Beastmen) i feel really bad. For him, the whole day was a learning experience but one that i'd liken to someone vigorously thrusting a fist in your ass to try and teach you the value of lube...

...and i have big hands!

I'm really happy with how my list playsthough and finally feel like i've made some progress tactically. I think that by deploying all castle i allowed myself to buff to the max and feel my list has some real synergy

And since Tomb Kings are considered really weak, one of the highlights of the day has to be 29 Tomb Kings archers getting called broken...

Anyway - hope you enjoyed it! I'm wanting to get back down to the club and get some ETC practice in for Call to War but work has my balls in a vice and it's looking like i'm going to have to make some scenery for Call to War!

Saturday 20 April 2013

New high elf leak

So I've been pouring over the newly "leaked" pictures...(thanks GW pr team) and I'm really excited by what I see!

Clearly have new shadow warrior figures and so I reckon the rumour I them being core will be true and can see them being buffed nicely to flog the new stuff!

The new pheonix model being sold one to a pack has me perplexed...i was expecting a pack of three...ala most monstrous cab so far... So either we're going to be having the most expensive unit of flying MC or they'll be similar to a ridden monster stat wise...interesting stuff either way!

Everqueen and guard models for sure! Can't wait to see the new rules!

So excited for this release!!


Oh and the new BSB model looks sweet but ill still e using my scratch built!

















Thursday 11 April 2013

Purr for me my beauty...

So today I have started and finished my sphinx and horsies! A productive day indeed!

I even did some laundry!

No sign of my KR Multicase inners so I'm expecting them tomorrow!

For the warhammer world tourney this Sunday I only have the catapults to do and make some movement trays!

As a complete break from fantasy, ill be playing Zi down at the club in a game of 40k. His new Tau against my Necrons.

It will hurt!

But it will also be batrep'd and up by the end of Saturday as ill need to clear all the room I can on my phone for Sunday!

Ill have a video introducing my list and tactics and such up on Sunday morning but the three BatReps from Sunday may take a while longer to get up.

Back at school on Monday and this half term brings an SLT inspection and an OfSTed visit all within the first two weeks!

I may look undead by the end of it!

Sunday 7 April 2013

I see dead people...

Seriously!

I'm dreaming of tomb guard! It's either too much plastic glue fumes or I'm painting too much!

I really want a fully painted army for Waw this Sunday though!

Archers are done ( in a day I might add) but the chariots are taking longer than expected. I've also been interweaving painting layers with gluing more skellies and a sphinx.

The sphinx kit is great as no matter what you build you get an otherwise unobtainable tomb king model which is a really great sculpt! I'm also planning on using the unused body as a cool "sinister statue" terrain piece!

With me having to head into school tomorrow to get some planning and marking done, the skellies will have to wait till Tuesday! I'm hoping to one day them so I can potentially one day the sphinx on Wednesday! Catapults on Thursday if they've arrived!

This will leave a bit of time to try and make some movement try's for them!!