Saturday 24 September 2011

Some fun gaming was had! (2 game summaries)

1500 High Elf Vs Skaven

OK so i finally had a game with this my new 1500pts list yesterday and thought i'd update the results! Apologies for no "proper" battel reports - we're still playing on an unpainted citadel (grey plastic) board with scribbled on paper to represent scenery...it serves its purpose but doesn't really make for good viewing! We'll try and address this once the initial surge of September "AHMAHGHAD!" has subsided!


The List:

Lvl 4 (High) - 260
Lvl 1 (Beasts) - Silver wand - 110

12 Archers - 132
12 Archers - 132
11 Archers - 121

16 Swordmasters - FC, Banner of Et. Flame, Amulet of Light - 280
5 Dragon Prince
5 Dragon Prince

RBT
Eagle


Total: 1500

I finally got a win...it must have been about 6-7 games since i last tasted victory and that was only @1k pts which is small enough to not even count. I've really been struggling to find my feet at higher points levels and feel much more comfortable and balanced with this list!

It's not a supah-powah'd list as, even though i whitewashed my mate's Skaven, he was using a very experimental list himself so i'm not counting my chickens...oh and he pretty much fluffed nearly every roll possible...you know what they say about skaven having a catastrophic game every 6 games or so? Well this was his...

It was Scenario 2 (Random Deployment) and i managed ot get my RBT and two archers units on a hill and the AM's unit was behind a ghost fence on the hill for extra protection! One DP unit was on the right flank aiming for his WLC with the SM's nearby facing up against his new-to-be-trialed Plagemonks unit.

The army basically did everything i wanted it to do! We both rolled the spells we wanted, with my AM getting Shield, Curse, Flames and Fury and teh L1 with wand (Beasts) getting Kadons and Amber Spear - (i swapped Kadons for WW).

The archers managed to shoot the crap out of his weapon team - the mortar one on the first turn even with him releasing the storm banner! (how could i forget about this??!!) With curse on a unit of clanrats, i maged to whittle them down for the DP to massacre them. On the other flank, the other DP's took out the WLC.

Magic wise, Shield was amazing and gave the game its final twist as my SM's faced with his Plaguemonk unit, got chopped to crap by good use of some epic magic items and then flanked by slaves. By using shiled i managed ot keep 4 alive which allowed my DP's into the back of his monks and my AM's archer unit into the flank of slaves.....he called it at this point!

So, thoughts...

Magic - I liked using High Magic. It's really versatile with good offensive spells (fury and Flames kept his DD used up) which allowed me to protect my SM and use Curse more. Beasts on the L1 was under utilised as i think i only got Amber spear off once @ his doomwheel taking 2 wounds off (which was it's purpose) but again...i'm taking Beasts purely for WW so any of the other spells is a bonus. I'm glad i swapped Kadons as it would have been cruel to have a dragon on the table too! (but i really DO want to try this spell one time...could be a Dispel Scroll user-upper)

Shooting - Against Skaven, this did exactly as designed - it killed his weapon teams that have caused me so much (tactical) grief in previous games. Against say, his WoC army, they would still serve a purpose in taking out his re-directors (Hounds) and then support stuff, but lets face it - they're core - they're not meant to be my game winners! Against Lizzies i reckon these would be good at taking out his pesky Skinks and Krox units. Against Dark Elves the 6" extra range gives me a whole turn of rolling on my opponent which is great. And since they're the only 3 armies i've played, i can't really comment on any other, except to say that against the OK army i'm planning, they would really only be able to wipe out the gnoblars and sabertusks - but like Chaos, if i'm taking out my opponents redirectors, then it allows my DP and Eagle to do what they do again!

Combat - The DP's did brilliantly and this was down to good placement of deployment really (and once again as with other stages, my opponents WOEFUL rolling - this really can't be stressed enough!) Having 2 units of them splits the oppononets target priority and their fast manouvrability means that they move so much in the first turn, they may forget about my SM...speaking of which, weren't the game changers they can be, but did manage a good job of holding up his danger unit for 2 important phases!

What next? - i want to try this list against my mates Lizzies and WoC to see of the Theory pays off! I reckon a good battering is expected from the WoC but could be realy fun Vs Lizzies!

A second army on the Horizon?

So i then played his WoC (experimental list) with my mocked up "Cardboard Proxy" Ogre Kingdoms list.

This game was fun! I ended up getting butchered (pun intended!) as i only remembered at a rather critical point in the game that we were playing "Blood and Glory" scenario!

Ogres are going to be Horrific!!! to play against as HE!

Sunday 18 September 2011

Dragon Princes finally finished and first 2500pts played

Ok so i've finally got my Princes finished. This has taken a lot longer than i'd hoped but having started my full time teaching post two weeks ago, i'm finding free time at a premium at the moment.

With only Blue, White and Silver (and a bit o' flesh) to paint they should not have taken this long...but ah well.

Here's a load of pictures of the riders already attached to the horses. I really quite like the highlighting on the blue and think its quite striking.





The 2500pt Game vs WoC
So i played my first proper 2500pt game last night using the follpwing list:

L4 Archmage w/ Book of Hoeth (Shadow)
L2 Mage (Death) w/ Silver Wand and Ring of Fury

35 Spears w/ FC and Gleaming Pennant
14 Archers
14 Archers

14 Swordmasters w/ FC and Standard of Balance
14 Swordmasters w/ FC and Banner fo Eternal Flame
5 Dragon Princes
5 Ellyrian Reavers w/ Spears and Bows
20 Pheonix Guard w/ FC and Banner of Sorc

2x Eagles

My opponent uses a Tzeentch L4 on a disc with the 2+/3++ combination, and i've been really struggling with ways of dissolcing this threat as he also arms it with the "Infernal Puppet" and some 2D6 S1 breath weapon. It's manouvreability and nigh-on-unkillable status makes it really fucking hard ot even wound never mind kill! This is the reason i'd chose Death on my L2, aside form potentially getting more Power Dice i want to get the sig spell off if he came within 24 inches of me.

He also used a Chosen unit and a warshire for the first time last night but didn't use the cheesey combinations. They're still a tough unit but the Standard of Balance really helped in this combat....well...until the Hellcannon weighed in!

In short, the game can be summed up by him rolling absurdly good on Magic and woeful in combat and me rolling woeful on magic and pretty ok in combat! This meant i was quite weakened in the early turns where treason screwed my SM (again). The problem was...with a Bookmage, i needed to use DD more than ever to dispel Pandamonium as i needed those doubles!

Lessons Learnt:

1) The Pheonix guard are amazing! This is my first time with them and that 4+ ward save is immense! They eventually (as in...4 rounds of combat) wiped out a unit of 18 Khorne warriors with Halberds whilst the Hellcannon was chewing them up too....i must add they only survived as the HC kill enough to remove itself from combat!

2) The Standard of Balance - Didn't get as much use out of it as i'd liked but i'm still feeling the love for it! As my WoC opponent loves treason (and why wouldn't he?) Making them immune to Psycology means this spell is useless on them...and having 2 units of swordmaster means he wont know which one has which...he just happened to choose the right one to screw first last night...doh!

3) Ring of Fury - again, another magic item i was trying out. The theory being that 2D6 S4 hit cast freely every turn can draw out opponents DD leaving space for the spells i actually want. I forgot to use this in the first turn which was really annoying as it would have done some nice damage to his Marauder unit! I also forgot about the Silver wand the whole bloomin game and so was only using 2 spells on my L2.

4) Magic Lores. I was umming and arring about them. I knew i wanted to try the Death sig against his L4 and never got it off...ce la vie! I also need miscast prtection as i miscast on turn one and reduced my L4 to a L2...thus the whole using a L4 for the first time went out on the first turn! It also allowed him a lot more spells than i'd have liked.

Changed for next time - Think i'll go with Life and Fire? Life and Metal would be pretty brutal and is something i'll only turn to as a last resort against WoC...i haven't won in sooooo looong!

I'm also willing to give the RoF another chance before swapping it for the Annulian Crystal...

I think next on the painting table is my second mage. I've got some more SM coming from ebay which will mean i need ot paint about 18 of them...yay! and also got a bid on some PG...