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After a long day of class and stuff it was time to hit the LGS and burn down the forest ...

Game Twenty-Two: Wood Elves

WE 1500

H: Wild Rider Noble - hail of doom, stag
C: 10 Glade Guard
C: 9 Dryads
C: 8 Dryads
C: 8 Dryads
S: 3 Treekin - champion
S: 3 Treekin - champion
S: 5 Wild Riders - full command
R: Treeman

Wow, treekin central ! Happy to see some interesting woody stuff (stag, treekin), and his armies are always really nicely converted and built, so a pleasure to play.

Tizz 1500

H: Sorcerer - MoT, golden eye, book of secrets, roar, disc
H: Exalted - MoT, BSB, biting blade, talisman of protection
C: 20 Warriors - MoT, warbanner, full command, shields
C: 19 Warriors - MoT, rapturous standard, full command, shields
C: 5 Horsemen - musician, spears, light armor
C: 5 Horsemen - musician, spears, light armor
R: Hellcannon

My list, since it's been a bit. Note that this is the first game that I have built-to-suit, by swapping the BSB's halberd & favor for a biting blade. Shame!

Scenario
Chaos Unleashed! - Pitched battle, but every turn both players for a die, add them together and check a chart to see what happens. Results range from magic drain (4+ to cast any spell, -1 to casting roll), to D6 S5 'lightning' hits to a unit, to +1 to hit with shooting, to limited sight (artillery x 3", to magic boost (+1 to all rolls, IF on double 5 too).

Magic
The Pimp: flickering fire, fireball

Deployment
Woodies (L2R): treekin left flank behind a large wood, wild riders behind them, great stag (not in WR as we weren't sure they were still fast cav with him?), glade guard on hill, dryads, dryads, treeman, treekin, dryads
Tizz (L2R): horsemen left flank, more horsemen, disc, warstar & rapturestar + BSB behind a small hill, hellcannon

Battle

Turn 1 - CHAOS! = +1 to hit with shooting
Tizz wins it with the +1 for finishing first, and heads on out: horsemen cut up the left flank around the large wood, with the other horsemen following them up, as the warstar and rapturestar move up onto the hill. They position themselves on the edge and I note that now both units have CR7 (HURR!) ... The hellcannon keeps it in her pants, and in fact never rampages this game either, and waddles by the rapturestar's side. The Pimp flits over to the left treekin's flank, and unleashes hell, with two flickering fire wounds turning into a dead tree creature.

Opening mission for the woodies is to kill the Pimp, and the glade guard and stag turn to accomplish this. Meanwhile the wild riders fast cav their way over to look at the lower horsemen unit sneaking around the large wood, the injured treekin bundle into the large woods, and the treeman & other treekin cautiously advance on the twinstars, with dryad clouds moving for the warriors' flanks in future turns. The treeman's treesong is shut down, and then everybody with a bow unloads into the Pimp. The hail of doom goes off with a sad 7 shots = 7 hits = 2 wounds = 2 armor/ward saves. The glade guard's 10 shots @ S3 do no better, unable to wound the tough little wizard.

Turn 2 - CHAOS! = 24" sight range
Arrogantly ignoring the glade guard's S4 short range, the Pimp floats over to the flank of the stag to BBQ it after everybody finishes moving. The horsemen push back against the left board edge to avoid charges from the stag, treekin or wild riders, and the twinstars get off their hill to advance cautiously into treemonic hug range. The hellcannon actually holds still and lines up a shot on the right treekin, lands a perfect shot on the champ, but all 5+ wards are passed! Oh magical doomfire, where are you now? Before this the Pimp had had his fireball dispelled, but 6x S5 flicking fire hits dealt 4 wounds to the stag and 1 to the noble. A blistering 11 roar burst the wee elf general's skull.

The wood elves forced to deal with the twinstars continue circling their prey, with dryads now positioned to the warstar's left flank and front and another unit a bit further out from the rapturestar's right flank. The treeman and 'kin scoot a tad more forward, and the wild riders swoop to get a bead on the warstar's flank / rear. I smell carnage next turn! But first the glade guard unload into the Pimp at point blank range, for no effect thanks to poor rolling from him and nice armor & wards from me.

Turn 3 - CHAOS! = magic boost
The 'stars prepare for a massed woodland assault next round, with the warstar wheeling to take dryads in the front and then dryads + wild riders in the flank, while the rapturestar follows its wheel to take the treeman + treekin in the front, but keep those right flanking dryads just out of range. The hellcannon marches behind the 'stars to prepare a counter-assault into the wild riders, should things lock down. Elsewhere a unit of horsemen zooms along the chaos DZ to likewise counter-charge next turn if needed, and the other horsemen push back into the wood elf side of things on the left flank, skirting the treekin over there. The Pimp floats to the flank of the glade guard and does horrible things to them with the help of the magical boost: fireball removes four elves and flicker takes away four more. The remaining two pass panic, only to have one of their brains detonated by roar. The last guard fails panic and runs back to his treefort.

Here we go! Dryads slam the front and flank of the warstar, with wild riders joining in the flanking fun - the warstar easily passes all three fear tests. The rapturestar is charged in the front by both treeman and treekin, but while the fear test vs treekin comes up , the terror vs treeman comes up ! The rapturestar runs very fast, hoping the hellcannon and making the treemonic monsters fail their charges. The treeman then succeeds in tree-singing his free wood, but whatever. Over in Fight Land, the wild rider champ and the warchamp miss each other (...), and then 12 dryad attaks and a bunch of wild rider strikes account for one warrior (he rolled quite badly to hit/wound). Warrior return attaks are pretty bad too, netting one wild rider. Unfortunately for the hippies the warstar has a lot of CR on its side, and all three WE units fail their break tests. The warstar chases after its flankers, catching the dryads but not the speedy riders - who have fled directly at the marauder horsemen anyway.

Turn 4 - CHAOS! = 12" sight range
Those horsemen charge the wild riders and crossfire them against the warstar's shield wall. The rapturestar rallies and turns around, the warstar turns and scoots back towards the treeman a hair, the hellcannon moves towards the big treemonics, the left flank horsemen leave the treekin for the wood elf DZ, and the Pimp floats down to bake some of the treekin near the treeman (consciously moving into strangle root range). Magic comes through some more, with a fireball crisping a treekin, and the Pimp roars at the fleeing dryads out of spite, though a massive roar nets 0 wounds.

A cagey turn for the treemonic dudes. Those dryads rally, the right flanking dryads decide to head back towards their side, and the treeman / 'kin back up a smidge. Then strangle root does a wound to the Pimp! Embarrassment!

Turn 5 - CHAOS! = N/A
Chaos is getting anxious again. The warstar moves up to tempt the treeman and dryads, the rapturestar moves up to possibly play with the treekin or counter-charge the big tree, and the hellcannon likewise scoots up to the edge of that small hill in case somebody wants to play with it. The Pimp hops over to the rapture flank, where dryads can't jump on him. As horsemen zip down both deployment zones, the Pimp slams more magical fire into the treekin, incinerating the other non-champ critter.

Alright, more fighting! The dryads and treeman hit the front of the warstar, and it once again easily passes fear and terror tests. The treekin champ shambles into the hellcannon too, aiming to assassinate some crew - which it does, killing two and grabbing 103 points. The hellcannon bites into him in return, and the wounded champ breaks and is run down by a quite speedy demo-cannon. In the warstar fight, the treeman smashes one warrior down, and the dryads blend up two other warriors. The warchamp and the standard bearer lay in and smash a couple dryads, and the treemonics lose combat by a bit. The treeman holds, while the dryads scamper away.

Turn 6 - CHAOS! = N/A
Not too much left but that tree fight to wrap up. The rapturestar is out of LoS to counter-charge the big treemonic dude, so stomps 4" somewhere. The hellcannon however is now in charge range of those dryads tactically retreating, so she charges in and prepares for some salad. The Pimp meanwhile wants to finish those treekin on the other side of the table, so urges his disc as far to the West as it can manage, but it's gonna be close ... Fireball casts but is about 2" out, so flicker goes into the fleeing dryads but is dispelled. Roar comes up a weak 3 and doesn't faze the wood chicks. In combat the treeman turns it ON and deals five wounds to the warstar, but in a flurry of shield work four are blocked, leaving just one dead warrior. In return the warchamp hacks into the gnarled monster and wounds it! The tree loses big, fails its stubborn break and is run down by the warstar. The dryads are pursued into, but flee out of range as the Pimp stopped the warstar short. Whilst this epic combat was finishing up, Ms. Nibbles ate a dryad, took no wounds back and tied combat.

Only rallying and nibbling left now. Those fleeing dryads rally, and those fighting the hellcannon put a wound on her. She misses them but is unbreakable.

TIZZ VICTORY (20-0)

I had given up half points for my sorcerer and hellcannon, while he had only 2 dryad units and a treekin block left on the table. We talked about how he could have just ran about and never engaged all game - which I'm used to treemonics doing vs my ogres - but really he needed to neutralize the Pimp in that early stand-off, and a 5-1-1 hail of doom wasn't going to make that happen. His dice were also quite cold until the last couple turns when his stuff started hitting a LOT, which helped me out for sure.

Massive credit to the warstar, these guys always seem to outperform the Duke & his rapturestar. Passing 4 fear & 1 terror test was just the tip of the awesome, netting something like 500+ points ... you know, in exchange for their 400 points. The Pimp has really been getting down to business too, props to that dude.

NEXT UP: The last 1500 pointer, which is probably Brets again as we're at the top of our division

- Salvage

Wow, you handled the wood elves! I'm suprised he includes the one unit of glade guard- he's got an all forest spirit list otherwise.

Did he remember that his noble on great stag has magic resistance (since he must be of the wildrider kindred) when you roasted him with magic? Also, I believe the wildriders should still be fast calvary with him attached- he's basically a wildrider since he has to take that kindred to use a great stag.

So you still dominated with CR from the warstar when he charged you with two units of dryads and the wildriders? I'm suprised, because I would have thought the wildriders would negate your ranks, add a dice for banner, flank, and outnumber (with three units to your one, and the WR counting for 2 US each). Am I missing something there?

Congrats and burning down the forest, even though it brings a tear to my eye

Aye, I let him roll his MR in there too, but I still smashed on through. Like I said, his dice really weren't up to it until the second half, when a lot of things were beaten up

I knew that characters riding a non-monster mount got to move like fast cav if they rode with them, but I wasn't sure if a monstrous mount could. Looking at my book it just says a 'mounted character' joining fast cav can free reform, so yea he could have. No 360 fire arc unless the stag has the fast cav rule (it didn't when he checked), but he could have zipped around.

Remember that fast cav and skirmishers don't negate ranks, so the warstar was rocking hardcore in the CR department. Only the treekin and treeman (and glade guard) could have negated the stars' ranks, hence me keeping them in the front. In the warstar combat the wood elf units didn't lose by much, -2 at the most, but his breaks flopped hard.

Cheers for the reply, at some point I'm up against Those Brettonians again for the final 1500 pointer. And then all hell breaks lose with 2250, with the top bracket pretty much locked into Brets, WoC, Skaven & more WoC

- Salvage

Love these reports Salvage, nice fluffy list ^.^

I'm absolutely loving your battle reports. They're easy to follow and quite amusing to read. Every time I see this post has a reply I check it and almost wet myself hoping it's a new report.

I'm really digging your list, and especially your build on The Pimp. It seems like a really wicked character, and has a big impact on your games.

Thanks for writing them, they brighten my day!

Ah, I didn't realize that fast cav don't break ranks! I don't think I've used them to do that yet... and now I'll know that they can't.

You seem to be on top of things rules-wise, which is why I wanted to ask about those things.

Any ideas what he could have done against your blocks? I'm guessing if he could have used the treekin in the flank, he obviously would have helped his chances, but it sounds like he had to hold them back / be a little conservative with them. In a mostly tree list, I've felt I've had to be very aggressive and use my manueverability to get more of my units against my opponents to be successful.

I'm wondering if he would have been more successful by not engaging (as it sounds like you've experienced before) or by engaging even harder, but more into just your flanks, etc. I guess it also would have helped to have his stag with the wildriders, but it doesn't sound like it would have made too much difference.

I'm a fan of unbalanced lists (all cc for mine) since it makes it easier to play, and overpowers one phase, but you lose flexibility and become a bit of a one-trick pony. I just don't really like the arrow on his stag- if he's paying for that character, he might as well get the Dawnspear (so that if they charge a unit and he causes a wound, they'll hit everyone back at -1 to hit). I don't know if that would have made a difference in that combat, though, since you won through pure static combat res.

Also not sure if he could have gotten the treekin or treeman up enough to break your ranks... if not, it sounds like he hit you with everything he could have at once, but it still didn't work.

I'd love to hear what you think he could have done to win

Actually, fast cav do break ranks. They just don't count their own ranks. It's skirmishers don't break ranks.

RZ

Phew, that's what I thought! I'm relying on those buggers to break ranks for me... otherwise it's just the treekin and treeman, and it's hard for them to get to the flanks.

You should tell this to your opponent so that he knows the rules of his calvary for next time! I bet they would have stuck around that combat with your block with a lower CR loss (at least one of the units). It does look like you had him well handled anyway, though.

Red_Zeke wrote:Actually, fast cav do break ranks. They just don't count their own ranks. It's skirmishers don't break ranks.

RZ

You know, I don't think I've ever played that right, with my own fast cav either Though I keep fighting brets of late, and I know flying cav don't negate ranks, so perhaps I was thoroughly confusing things.

In this game it would have been quite simple to reform the warstar to keep the wild riders in the front, and simply trust in the rapturestar to hold. Which is funny, because it fled terror ...

- Salvage

Who takes enough fast cav to get a rank bonus anyway, even if they got it? I have seen ONE 10-man unit of pistoliers in all the games I've ever played, and that's it.

I love these reports, keep 'em coming!

Orkestra wrote:
I'm really digging your list, and especially your build on The Pimp. It seems like a really wicked character, and has a big impact on your games.

I hate that build on the Pimp.

Seriously, I lay in bed at night trying to figure a way to beat him. Thus far, Ms. Nibbles has had far better luck than I have.

jayzerus wrote:I hate that build on the Pimp.

Seriously, I lay in bed at night trying to figure a way to beat him. Thus far, Ms. Nibbles has had far better luck than I have.

Says one of two (three) players who has taken him down. IIRC I've lost him to your peasant archers (!!!), your errants (because I'm an idiot), Brian's elf bowmen, and my hellcannon exploding ... 4 out of 22 games? Not too bad

A lot of that has been T4 & 3+ armor working out for him, though there have been some fantastic golden eye saves, like absorbing ~6 S10 shots from the doomwheel

- Salvage

Noooo! This Topic has ended :[
I found it some days ago and I had the joy to read mostly every day since then 1-3 Reports and learned a lot of them and it was really refreshing

But now I'm at the end of this topic and I'll have to wait! Nooo!

More Serious:

Very nice reports. I like those experimental lists and your reports have strenghtend my wish to use a hellcannon - but also showed me, what you meant as you sayed in my army-list thread to play those baby a bit more aggressive
And a newbie like me never had thought that this thing can give so much punch without firing! Bäm!

Keep it coming, Boss!

Thanks for the kind words Terro, how about a new report? Feels like it's been forever ... Spent the last couple weeks painting my skaven back up to 2250 for an RTT this past Sunday, which I'll do a mini-report on soon enough and let you know how the vermin lord did

In the meantime, got in the final game of 1500 vs Jayzerus' brets.

Game Twenty-Three: Brettonians

Brets 1500

H: Paladin - sword of might, e. shield, lance
H: Paladin - BSB, virtue of duty, questing vow
H: Damsel - chalice, scroll, horse
C: 8 Errants - errantry banner, full command
C: 6 Errants - full command
C: 5 KotR - warbanner, full command
C: 15 Archers - skirmish
S: 5 Questing Knights - full command
S: 3 Pegs - full command
S: 5 Yeomen - musician, bows, spears, shields
R: Trebuchet

I brought the 1500 tizz list from the other games, though the BSB took his halberd + favor along this time, rather than just a biting blade as vs the woodies.

Scenario
King of the Hill - Pitched battle with 225 VP for standing on a (tiny) hill placed board-center. So now I knew where the Duke and friends would make their stand

Magic
Damsel: wolf hunts
Pimp: flickering fire, fireball

Deployment
Brets (L2R): peasant blob hard left, small errants, yeomen (on hill), questers + BSB / errantry errants + general / kotr + damsel (all packed in dead center), treb, pegs (on hill)
Tizz (L2R): horsemen hard left, (hill), rapturestar + BSB / warstar (dead center, headed for the central hill and carnage), pimp (behind wood), hellcannon, horsemen hard right (wood between them and peg hill)

Battle

Turn 1
Hellcannon starts things out my flipping her gak and rampaging 9-10" for the pegs! Left horsemen concede the flank and head east, rapture & warstars pound up 7" ready to mount the hill next turn, right horsemen head up their flank, sure to keep the woods between them and the looming pegasi, and the Pimp hops to the left flank of the rapturestar, close to max range from the pegs but also denying them any room to land a charge. He opens up with a min-cast fireball at the errantry errants (3+1 [+1] = 5 ) which the damsel knocks down, and his max-range flicker at the questers is likewise dispelled.

Brets declare no charges but play it pretty cagey yet. Blob holds to tag the left horsemen, the small errants head around the left hill and angle for the rapturestar's flank in future turns, the yeomen march up and wheel to break the rapturestar's ranks next turn (I let him know fast cav can in fact do this, thanks dakka!), and his mainline of lances inch up slightly. However the most important move is the pegs, who swoop down and park in front of his errants, partially to limit me from jostling my warriors to suck the errants out without quester support, but also out of paranoia for the Pimp roaring his way through knights as in previous encounters ... No magic, the treb scatters hard off the center of the warstar, and long range fire from the archer blob wounds no horsemen.

Turn 2
Ms. Nibbles continues to be pissed and rampages again, 6" (...) towards the kotr! The rapturestar mounts the central hill, with the warstar off its right flank and slightly back. Left horsemen mobilize up to divert the yeomen away from the rapture's flank, the right horsemen continue around the right flank woods, looking at a turn 4 charge on the trebuchet, and the Pimp hops well past the pegs' LoS to the left flank of the questers + BSB. Magic sees a fireball hit the questers and do nothing, and a min-cast flicker (1+2 [+1] = 4) easily stopped. A powerful 10 roar randomizes around and can't manage any 6's

All down to the brets to bring it, and they do. The yeomen charge the horsemen blocking them, the questers + pegs go into the rapturestar, and the kotr head into the warstar. The small errants head in for the rapture flank or front next turn, and the large errants reform to hope for a wolf hunts into the warstar too. The damsel rolls the 9 she needs, but the Pimp stomps it with a 16 dispel or so. The blob, which had scooted over to tag the Pimp, unloads but the single wound is saved by armor. The treb aims for the center of the hellcannon but scatters off the beast. Mayhem Phase begins with the yeomen killing 2 marauders, losing 3 of their own, but easily holding. The rapturestar combat happens next, as he was worried about the warstar stomping the kotr and persuing into the peg knight overhanging the rapture combat (a good possibility). The Duke challenges, takes a wound from the questing champ (!), then cuts him down (no overkill). The other brets have a stellar round of warrior-killing, dropping 5 maniacs despite their 2/6+ saves, and suffer none in return. Amazingly despite starting with 3 ranks, standard, battle standard & high ground, the rapturestar loses by 4! But they aren't called the rapturestar for nothing: first roll comes up 1+5 and thus insane courage. The warstar meanwhile loses nothing to the kotr, the warchamp decapitates their champion and they break (lost by 4 in fact) twice and flee through the general's errants, who don't care. The warstar pursues into the pegs.

Whew.

Turn 3
The Pimp, not having much luck in his magicing and roaring roles, charges the fleeing kotr and follows them off the table. The HC unfortunately keeps it in her pants this turn and marches up to cuddle errants at some point, whilst the right horsemen get in position to take out the treb next turn. No magic, no shooting, just fighting. The left horsemen embarrassingly lose another marauder to the yeomen, but they kill one and break the last peasant, pursuing into the errants' flank to keep them from flank charging the rapture boys next turn. Speaking of which ... The Duke challenges again and the bret BSB accepts, and in a brutal showing the chaos BSB deals out 3 wounds - EOTG = +1T. A mountain of warrior attaks deals no further wounds, but the bretons manage nothing in return either. It matters not and the massive chaos CR breaks both units, with the rapturestar holding its position atop the hill while the warstar catches the pegs and pursues into the errants (!) behind them.

The fleeing questing knights fail to rally and head off the board, and everybody else is fighting or wants to shoot. To that end, the blob tries to loft for the far right horsemen but is out, and the treb aims for either the rapturestar or hellcannon but scatters quite hard once again. In combat the warchamp challenges the paladin but is cut down, and a single errant dies from the flurry of blades. Any return attaks are fruitless and the errants are swamped with CR once more, breaking and leaving the table while the warstar collects its 4th banner. Meanwhile the errants beat and pursue the marauders pestering them, using the pursuit move to get far into the chaos quarter and away from the chaos scourge.

With just the blob (soon to be ignored), the treb (soon to be eaten by horsemen), and the errants (doomed to spend the rest of the game harassed by the Pimp), he concedes.

TIZZ VICTORY (20-0)

Full credit to J for wanting to fight, but he did give my warriors exactly what they want, with head-on charges that saw the most CR-laden stuff into the rapturestar (on a hill no less) and easily-handled stuff into the warstar. Like he said afterwards, he had pretty much boned himself with that first peg move, when he could have stayed on the hill and continued to exert his 20" charge threat (which was certainly keeping me in check, though not out of threat range) while the significant errant threat was applied to the warstar or the hellcannon, either of which stood a good chance of falling. My own MVP may have been the brets themselves or the rapturous banner for doing what I've been paying it for for 4 games now - the Pimp accomplished nothing but pushing the kotr off (and making J overly cautious), the horsemen either took out chaff or delayed or got into position, the hellcannon did her best to get into position fast (I prefer rampaging to firing personally), and the warriors either killed nothing or failed their armor saves more than half the time.

Rolling on the Eye always makes me happy though, so maybe the Duke van Dook can have the credit

So it's on to 2250 now, and total carnage Though at some point we have a 1000 point team tournament that's happening, so we aren't out of the small scale quite yet. Speaking of tournaments, remember that 1000 pointer I played in and was surprised to get 4th? Turns out the math was wrong and the Tizz boys nabbed 3rd! Score!

- Salvage

Wow, congrats on another resounding victory! Is the 20-0 with this particular list, or are you undefeated with the army itself? Either way... that's incredible!

Looking forward to hearing how your skaven did (although, selfishly hoping it's not quite this good... you're starting to make me feel bad )

20-0 refers to the battle points for the win - I got 20 points and he took away 0. These get added to a running total to decide rankings in the league we're running. You get more or less BP depending on the VP difference, splitting 20 total points with your opponent. My record in our league right now is 12-5-2, though I fear big wins will be tougher when we enter 2250 range.

You'll have to wait and see how the skaven did, though they're pretty soft overall. Hell, all of 2250 armies are fairly soft / de-tuned (or they're ogres!), but WoC certainly seem SO much tougher than squishy little skavens

- Salvage

I'm really mad at myself for putting my Pegs down in front of the knights. I should have dropped them in behind your two units of warriors (I had the distance) and waited one more turn to charge. Then I would have had a rear (or flank at worst). Or, at the very worst, combined the pegs with the KotR. That would have at least been enough to hopefully get them to hold another turn - just enough for me to get my big lance in there.

And I still don't understand why I continue to pound into the Rapturestar. I think its because its the only thing that I've been able to break. Everytime I go balls out against the warstar, it always holds.

Man this game burned my ass. Not so much because I lost - but more because I lost 20-0 and the fact that it was because I was an absolute idiot with my movement.

jayzerus, I feel your pain. I only killed 5 models in a game this weekend, losing all but 2 of mine, and it was due to my own mistakes in movement. Grrr....

Take it out on his army next time by resisting the urge to charge too soon... now if I could only learn that lesson, too

Rapturous banner is... you only need on your break test for insane courage instead of ? Dayum. Any drawbacks to that? And how many points?

Malleus wrote:Rapturous banner is... you only need on your break test for insane courage instead of ? Dayum. Any drawbacks to that? And how many points?

Even better than that. Any double or any one counts as insane courage ... and it's 20 points Yes, that's kinda messed up.

You may have noticed that I've never passed that rapturous test before though, and actually failed it twice with the BSB's help last time J sent two units into the rapturestar (and won by less, -2 not -4). Ignoring my ability to make the impossible possible, the odds of passing a rerolled rapture test is fairly ridiculous

- Salvage

We just had a 1500 point tournament here in Brisbane and that list would have fitted perfectly into the restrictions, and is so left of field to the typical all monted WOC armies we see here it would have done great.

Good work on the reports.

Thanks Waaagh. Speaking of unique tournaments, we had a 1000 pointer random match team tournament yesterday, with pretty cosmic pairings ... My brother was up from Colorado for his birthday and a few days of gaming with my ogre army, so we bashed out a bunch of games. Don't expect reports of any depth, these are more for keeping track of the Tizz boys exploits

Game Twenty-Four: Ogres

He took my last attempt to make a 2k ogre list I like, and the army I'd like to finish painting this summer and call it done until the new book.

Ogres 2000

L: Tyrant - the tenderizer, talisman of protection, fistful
H: Butcher - skullmantle, 2x thiefstones
H: Butcher - bangstick, dispel scroll
C: 7 Ironguts - warbanner, full command
C: 3 Ironguts - bellower
C: 3 Bulls - crusher, bellower, ironfists
C: 3 Bulls - bellower, ironfists
C: 8 Trappers
S: 2 Leadbelchers - bellower
R: 3 Maneaters - handguns, heavy armor
R: Gorger

I rocked my new chaos lord, in a 2250 list from which I cut out the tizz giant and called it good.

Tizz 2000

L: Chaos Lord - MoT, axe of tzeentch, enchanted shield, collar of tzeentch, favor, demonic mount
Disc sorcerer, BSB, warstar, rapturestar, 2x spear horse, warhounds, 6 forsaken (!), hellcannon

This ended up an OGRE WIN, with the breaker being him flanking the warstar + lord with three guts while solo-charging the tyrant into the unit's front. After feeding the warchamp to the tyrant, I easily lost the lord to the beast's S7 D3 wound stick, and lost a lot of my confidence in his ability to tackle big monsters in my league games ... My brother's dice were running HOT with hits, and when that happens with ogres only good things can follow, with him ultimately reducing the warstar to just the warbanner bearer still battling the tyrant at game end. Whoa. The rapturestar for its part took the charge of the gutstar and broke it pretty easily, and the forsaken proved that I don't really want them around - it's the frenzy + random attaks that does it. I can't have a unit that needs babysitting yet can't be depended on to bring more than 12 attaks to the party

Next we got a practice game in for the 1k tournament:

Game Twenty-Five: Ogres

Ogres 1000

H: Bruiser - great weapon
H: Butcher - bangstick
C: 4 Ironguts - bellower
C: 3 Bulls - bellower, ironfists
C: 3 Bulls - bellower, ironfists
C: 8 Trappers
S: 2 Leadbelchers - bellower
R: Gorger

Tizz 1000

H: Sorcerer - MoT, golden eye, book of secrets, roar, disc
C: 20 Warriors - MoT, warbanner, full command, shields
C: 5 Horsemen - musician, spears, t. spears, light armor
C: 5 Horsemen - musician, spears, t. spears, light armor
C: 5 Warhounds
R: Hellcannon

So an uber-striped down ogre list that I was pretty proud of, vs the facebeater list that you know and love/hate.

This was a rough game for my brother, and even I got a real feel for how unpleasant The Pimp is at 1000 points. He lost his butcher in a needless charge into the hellcannon, and from there his main accomplishment was beating Ms. Nibbles down - she didn't go gently though, eating butchers, leadbelchers and an irongut in the process. The Pimp meanwhile roasted nearly anything that mattered to cinders, including the bruiser and his bull escort. A resounding TIZZ WIN.

We actually swapped armies after this so I could 'show him how to win' with ogres vs warriors. I'm sad to say that all I did was trash his chaff units, direct anything with a great weapon into the hellcannon and then stayed away from the warstar while devoting all ranged fire into the disc sorcerer (for no result). His return magic was gentle and I squeaked out the narrowest of OGRE WINs. Not a feel good one though, and I would feel the frustration of the warstar and its M4 being avoided in the team tournament.

Next up, my buddy DG trekked out to my place in the woods and we threw down @ 1k again. He actually fought my bro first and my brother did a nice job rounding him up and beating his TK to dust.

Game Twenty-Six: Tomb Kings

TK 1000

H: Prince - big US5 flaming chariot, flail
H: Liche - [hiero] jar, steed
H: Liche - cloak
C: 5 Light Cav - musician
C: 5 Light Cav - musician
C: 2 Swarms
S: 3 Ushabti
S: Scorpion

My list was the same as before.

This game was pretty much over when DG deployed his hiero outside of a unit, unafraid of being sniped by hellcannon or an aggro roaring sorcerer. Unfortunately for him I got first, skimmed the Pimp over and let the hiero have it with a brutal fireball that burnt him to cinders. His crumbles weren't bad - this list is largely protected with high unit LD - but lack of incantations was telling. There was a moment of real possibility when he had a magically-boosted flank chance with ushabti into the hellcannon already fighting a scorpion, the overrun from which would have given the ushabti a flank charge on the warstar, to help out the prince's frontal charge. But the single incantation was crushed. He managed 1 dead horseman and 1 dead chaos dwarf and was cleared off the table for a TIZZ WIN.

I was inordinately confident going into the team tournament, but that would prove to be premature ... Stay tuned for three more tiny recaps!

- Salvage

Yeah you gave me quite a lesson on leaving the Heiro out for those zippy wizards and magic missiles. I've since learned to protect him from those nefarious utility units.

~DG

Wow, nice rapid-fire summaries . It must be fun to be able to play that many games close together!

So I'm guessing it's your brother on the ogres who teamed up with you for the tournament? Could people team up any two armies? It does seem like having two armies with different strengths would be an advantage, over two that are more straight-up facebreakers

The four team matchups were (in placing order):

1. Vampires & Tomb Kings
2. Bretonnians & Empire
3. Warriors and Beasts of Chaos
4. High Elves and Ogres


Oddly enough, these were random pairings. Only the Ogres and Elves seemed like an odd couple, though looking at the matchups, you would think that they had a bit of an advantage - especially considering the Elves brought a dragon to the party (at 1000 pts???).

The entire day was a quagmire of really bad rolling, unless you were one of the non-living.

Yes, the HE/Ogre pairing does seem a little odd . It must have been a dragon mage, since to get anything else you need to use a Lord slot.

What did the TK player bring? I think there could be some configuration of tomb kings that would complement VC really nicely!

He had a Tomb Prince, Hiero and another prist type character. Aside from that, it was a unit of Ushabti, a Tomb Scorpion, 2 units of fast cav and some swarms.

VCs had two huge blocks of ghouls and a large unit of black knights.

Nice battle reports, I like the story element added into it as well

Hey guys, I had the TK list,

prince:chariot, icon of rulership, chariot of fire, flail

Priest:cloak of dunes

Priest: steed, hieratic jar

5 Light horsemen:musician

5 light horsemen:musician

2 tomb swarms

tomb scorpion

3 ushabti

-999pts


My VC counterpart had 2 units of ghouls with 2 foot vamps and a unit of black knights with a mounted vamp I'm not sure of the specifics on his list.

Hope this helps!
~DG

Sweet I was thinking a fast-moving or chariot-heavy TK list might help out the vamps, yours looks very balanced, though! I can't wait for some new TK models to replace those skeleton horses...