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Finished painting up some of the "last" of the models for the army: Horror #46, Horror #47 and Unit Filler #2 (1988 IN THE HOUSE!). All I have to do for my 2400/2500 list is the Soul Grinder, who I'm just starting to poke at. From there, I need to do up a display board by March's Crossroads GT, and eventually see if I'm up for the Lord of Change at long last! Oh, and I guess I have 10+ more plastic horrors primed for when I'm feeling bored

In related news, local tournament is happening this Saturday, three rounds of 1800 points, and looking at the player's pack (plus lack of comp), we'll just have to see how well I make out. Here's ...

THE LIST

Herald of Tzeentch - level 2 (METAL), greater gift
Herald of Tzeentch - level 2 (TIZZ), BSB
25 Horrors - full command (gleaming pennant)
25 Horrors - full command
6 Flamers - pyrocaster
3 Screamers
3 Screamers
Soul Grinder of Tzeentch - daemonbone claw

Stay tuned for some reports of some kind!

- Salvage

Solid!

Yuss!! Does this mean I'll get that long-awaited army pic?

 RiTides wrote:
Yuss!! Does this mean I'll get that long-awaited army pic?

I'd still say you've got a month or more before the grinder gets painted, Tides Also planning a segue into a tiny bit of 28mm Inquisitor in December, in preparation for Random Xmas Gaming with my little brother. Which will be fun, and no doubt provide copious distraction from the looming daemon engine

- Salvage

As promised, let’s recap this weekend’s tournament! 3 rounds, 1800 points, battleline scenarios + additional objectives, painting scored by opponent judgment of a single chosen unit, and simple sportsmanship to round out the total.

Twelve players turned out, about a third from my club, a third from a group of new players (40k converts I think?), and a third from out of town. Decent army selection, with a preponderance of Undead Legions …

For reference, here’s my list from above:

Herald of Tzeentch - level 2 (METAL), greater gift
Herald of Tzeentch - level 2 (TIZZ), BSB
25 Horrors - full command (gleaming pennant)
25 Horrors - full command
6 Flamers - pyrocaster
3 Screamers
3 Screamers
Soul Grinder of Tzeentch - daemonbone claw

My General-Herald managed to roll up 1 or 2 on his greater gift every game, which meant he rocked overpriced fencer’s blades all three games, and swung them only in Game Three. My spell selection was equally consistent each match, but in a more positive way – I had gateway + blue fire on my Horror blocks, with pink fire + glean or firestorm on the BSB Herald. Metal general got enchanted blades + transmutation of lead, gleaming robes + final trans, and enchanted blades + final trans. Maybe that’s a spoiler, but I never had a reason to take searing doom o_O

GAME ONE: UNDEAD LEGIONS

Vampire Lord – level 4 (VAMPS), red fury, aura of dark majesty, fear incarnate, talisman of preservation, trickster’s helm, great weapon, heavy armor, shield
Necromancer – level 1 (VAMPS), the cursed book
Cairn Wraith
Cairn Wraith
Necrotect

40 Skeleton Warriors – standard (screaming banner), musician
3 Skeleton Chariots
21 Zombies – musician
3 Vargheists – vargoyle
Terrorgheist
Casket of Souls



Wraths and Vamp Lord fill out the front of the Skeleton bus, pushing the Necrotect to the second rank, whilst the Necromancer hangs out with the Zombies. Tizz BSB in the left Horrors, Tizz general in the right. And yes, my opponent was a little bummed that all his points in LD shenanigans would be for not.

The scenario for this game was to get the most fortitude within 8” of the five objectives (noted with BC icons on the map) starting end of Turn 2, at which point the player who controlled the most objectives that turn scored 1 BP. We played that a unit with fortitude could contest multiple objectives, meaning longer buses could straddle the center and outer objectives, however I failed to move my left Horrors 1” closer to the center into contestation range, meaning that he scored ever turn by having one more fortitude than me on the center. Ah well.

To the carnage. Early Tizz aggression went into the Chariots, but poor winds rolls over the first three turns (6,3,2) meant I really only had the Flamers available to hurt them, eventually cooking them down to 1 Chariot on 1 wound with 4+ regen. This thing would eventually die in combat with Horrors, but not until after being joined by his dead friends over and over. But that was the theme for the early game: Vamps got loads of dice (thanks CoS!), used largely to invoke and curse of years the right Horrors (with gateway), while Tizz was strangled for dice (WTB: CoS?).

While the Chariots were adventuring forward and Horrors were getting old and dying (seriously, curse sucks to dispel in your turn when you have so few dice, and a desire to cast your own stuff), the Blenderbus cautiously strolled up to the center, Zombies camped the woods (and their objective), and the flanks mostly held tight to keep the Screamers occupied and not ravaging the Casket. Eventually the Vargheists helped the solo chariot wreck the Flamers, freeing their Screamers to splash against the Casket, fluff and get rear-charged by said V-gheists come game end. Meanwhile the T-gheist jellied two of his three Screamers, rendering them ineffective for anything but diverting the Blenderbus, and took a break in between bouts of screaming at Screamers to one-shot the Grinder (7 scream-wounds into 6 failed 5+ wards). This was all very unsettling.

Going into the late game I had only the Horror blocks (the one that mattered (GATE!) severely depleted and flank charged by chariots) and their Heralds, for virtually no points gained. Cue 10 dice magic phase! S5 pink fire + S5 blue fire washed over the Blenderbus, dropping twenty Skeletons and growing the Gate-Horrors back to full strength. An IF gateway then slammed into the Terrorgheist, reducing it to a pile of spooky glitter for an even exchange of Horrors after summon + miscast (thanks to timely 4+ ward). The Blendervan made contact with the BSB’s Horrors in the final Undead turn (BSB having hoped out last turn), invoked a few Skeletons, blended a Horror or two, got a Wraith groped off the table, and generally didn’t do too much. In the final Tizz round, another strong magic phase (9) largely just converted Zombies into Horrors, and we ground for another turn, killing the other Wraith but otherwise accomplishing little.

It’s a pity I don’t have time or notes to do a full report, because despite the tame result – VAMP MINOR VICTORY – it was pretty neat to see both of our summoning mechanics in action. It did however make for a long, long game, and we were late to lunch, having played just five turns

GAME TWO: UNDEAD LEGIONS

Tomb King – destroyer of eternities
Liche High Priest – level 4 (NEHEKHARA), obsidian lodestone, dispel scroll
Master Necromancer – level 4 (VAMPS), talisman of preservation, black periapt
Necromancer – level 1 (VAMPS)

38 Skeleton Warriors – full command (screaming banner)
19 Crypt Gouls – ghast
6 Spirit Hosts
Hierotitan



Tomb King and Liche High Priest in the Skeleton horde, Master Necro in the Ghouls. Tizz BSB in the left Horrors, general in the right Horrors (who had gate).

Scenario this time was based around keeping your points in characters (including champions) alive, while killing the other player’s. Character points were calculated thusly: Lords 3, Heroes 2, Champs 1. Soooo having three lords meant he started quite a bit higher than I did …

Player 2 was rather inexperienced – this was like his fourth game of Fantasy – and hampered by the models he owned, but otherwise a nice dude and happy to make a game of it. Also 11 spells but no Casket seemed like madness – he admitted that the Spirit Hosts were being made into a Casket as soon as he could find the model, which apparently is nigh-unavailable thanks to End Times

Anyway, Undead opened the game by shuffling forward and hurling a boosted wind of undeath 40” through both Horror blocks! Both units lost a third of their daemons, to a spell I’d never heard of being cast post-VC update. Once again Tizz was magically punched in the junk to begin (2! then 5), but that didn’t hold back my Grinder, who thundered 16” up to the Hosts. They obliged and charged to their doom, eventually expiring in a couple turns and opening the daemon engine up to take on the Ghoul bunker. In a beautifully orchestrated ballet of barbs and pistons, the Ghouls were charged by Screamers and Grinder in the front and more Screamers in the back (who had overrun after devouring the free-balling Necromancer in the Undead backfield), and dismembered after two rounds – though credit to the Master Necro, who spryly dodged the Grinder’s ministrations and warded off a LOT of toothy and/or pneumatic attention, before crumbling out.

Eventuality reared its ugly head and – after the marauding Grinder charged the Hierotitan, flubbed its daemonbone claw attak one turn, then decapitated the boney giant the next – it was just the Skelestar facing much of my army. Magic had been ramping up for the Tizz boys over the course of the game (10, 6, 8, 12!), however with MR(3) on the deathstar virtually all my magic had gone to final trans them (for little effect in the end) and piddling smaller spells – blue fire on the Hiero, enchanted robes on some Horrors, etc. The Tomb King was fed the blue fire Horrors (from which the Tizz BSB had of course fled), and frankly that should have been the total of his points …

Except Nurgle. Turn 3 Tizz magic had summoned the attention of Papa, who happily visited his contagion upon all unengaged Tzeentch units that weren’t Horror blocks. Flamers and Screamers were fine … however the BSB, who was orbiting the house to provide the Grinder whatever LD support he might need, caught a brutal case of Warp Ebola. Maximum hits (9 S3) saw him melt into a sickly mess of ichor, giving the Undead player 250 points and an automatic +1 BP for ‘killing’ my BSB

Despite this disgusting turn of events, this was still a TIZZ MAJOR VICTORY, plus I earned my single BP of the game (because he didn’t have a BSB for me to feed to a jovial daemonic entity).

GAME THREE: SKAVEN

Grey Seer – level 4 (RUIN), talisman of endurance, dispel scroll
Chieftain – BSB, shield
Warlock Engineer – level 1 (RUIN), doom rocket, condenser

36 Stormvermin – full command (storm banner)
20 Clanrats – full command, shields, plague wind mortar
34 Slaves – musician, shields
34 Slaves – musician, shields
5 Giant Rats – packmaster
5 Giant Rats – packmaster
5 Gutter Runners – slings, poison
5 Gutter Runners – slings, poison
Hellpit Abomination ‘Timmy’
Warp Lightning Cannon
Warp Lightning Cannon



Grey Seer and BSB in the Clanrat bunker, Rocketeer in the left Slaves. Tizz BSB in the left Horrors (with gate), general in the right Horrors.

Final round against my clubmate and his Skaven, who haven’t seen the light of day in a couple years. He was able to cram just about all the usual filth into 1800 points, making both of us a bit queasy. This scenario rewarded BP for having the most wounds within 6” of the center come game end, and allowed bonuses to units with musicians within 12” of the center. With so few bodies and fewer musicians, my plan was to pull him off the hill and see if I could stick him on Horrors while faster and more competent daemons did stuff.

BATTLE

Turn 1

Skaven grab it and go. Roughly 80 rats climb the hill, as the Hellpit stumbles forward a massive 5-6.” A strong magic phase scorches 5-6 Horrors from the blue fire unit, and the Grey Seer fries himself for a wound with backfiring warp lightning. The Gutter Runners send some exploratory warpstone shots into the Grinder in the woods for no return, then the Warp Lightning Cannons unload into the daemon engine: one hits at S6 but can’t reach the 5+ to wound, followed by a S2 from the other machine that likewise can’t dent T7. Finally, the Plaguewind Mortar sends a max range round at the gateway Horrors, splashing the front rank with poison gas and choking one daemon out.


The Tizz Herald waves his shiny paired swords (that he grudgingly paid too much for) and sends the wings of the army forward in reply: the left Screamers rip over the left rat dart that moved too far, killing a couple Giant Rats, and the right Screamers plop in front of their own rats to dare them to charge next turn. The Grinder celebrates life and frolics amongst the trees, as the Flamers get into position to make bad decisions. The winds of magic nearly die out (3), threatening to destabilize the Tizz general but he resists the call of the warp. Gateway fails to cast. The Flamers open fire on the Stormvermin horde, dropping a few and gifting them regen 6+. Finally, the Grinder lets rip with his harvester cannon at the Gutters … but six shots can’t push through the 7+ to hit.

Turn 2

The right Giant Rats lead off a turn of skittering by charging their Screamers, followed by the HPA ferociously shambling another 5-6”, Gutters redirecting the Grinder, left Rats moving to intercept, Engineer getting into position and blocks prepping for charge. The Grey Seer scorches another 5-6 Horrors, this time from the gateway unit, shortly before the Engineer shocks himself for a wound with backfiring warp lightning. And then the doooooomrocket poops out and detonates well before the gateway Horrors. The fluff continues as one WLC fizzles out on the way into the Grinder, and the other WLC explodes in a green mushroom cloud. A turn of fail concludes as the Giant Rats do nothing to their Screamers, lose 5 of 6 and flee, to be caught in the process of pulling the sky sharks into easy charge of the surviving cannon.


The Screamers whip into the WLC, as the Grinder grudgingly charges into the Gutters (who pass terror like bosses). Other Screamers begin closing on the Skaven bunker, dropping a few barbs into a couple Slaves in the process, while the Horrors all back up, and the Tizz general bails in the face of a wall of halberds. The winds blow average (7 for the only time all tournament), giving enough juice for the Tizz BSB to glean warp lightning from the Skaven Engineer and kill him with the S3 hit (then process his furry soul into a new Horror), before gateway is scrolled. The Flamers wave their nubs at the Stormvermin and a few vaporize … and their buddies hulk out and reach regen 5+. In combat, the Grinder manages a single dead Gutter, but sends them running with the charge, then reforms to face the Skaven army. Oh, and Screamers devour the WLC but don’t make the ambitious overrun into the Mortar.

Turn 3

All the carnage! Slaves flank the Grinder, Stormies charge the blue fire Horrors, and the HPA lurches into some Screamers. The fleeing Gutters keep booking it, while the second unit slinks on behind the free-balling Tizz general, Skaven HQ keeps its LD bubbles in position, free Slaves continue chasing the Flamers, and the Mortar backs up for a parting shot at the Screamers. The Grey Seer death frenzies the Slaves facing the Grinder, and the Mortar woefully scatters off the Screamers threatening its dissolution. The super secret stealth assassin team Gutters can’t hurt the Tizz general, the single poison hit being LOS! into the gateway Horrors and warded.

In combat, the HPA feeds on a Screamer … and then stomps the remaining two into goo, because warbeast monster-killers are awkward. The crazy Slaves scrabble a wound onto the Grinder, before losing two handfuls and their frenzy, but steadfasting easily. And a token 5+ regen Stormvermin dies, for a heavy toll in Horrors.


Ladies and Gentlemen, we have entered the grind! The surviving Screamers rip over the Mortar, filling it with needles, as Flamers continue to frustrate the incoming Slaves and the Tizz general bunkers into the gate Horrors. The winds continue gaining in strength (9), bringing a massive brass skull with them that deviates off of the HPA and plows into the Skaven bunker, crushing a few Clanrats. An IF gateway follows it in, melting 9-10 Clanrats and summoning 8 Horrors into the beleaguered blue fire Horrors … at the cost of 8 gateway Horrors! Warp Fire claims another Clanrat. The Flamers’ hot loving can’t touch the infiltrated Gutters, and it’s onto combat.

The Grinder takes another wound from its Slaves, before stomping all over the unit, forcing them to steadfast out once more. The Stormvermin again take a token loss, after butchering the summoned Horrors and more. A single rank is left after instability.

Turn 4

Moar carnage! The most ballsy packmaster ever leads his Giant Rats into the rear of the Soul Grinder, the Slaves hunting the Flamers fail a long charge on their target, and the ambushing Gutters rear charge the gate Horrors. The other Gutters rally and face the rampaging Screamers, and the HPA scuttles away from the Grinder about to break free of its furry restraints. The Grey Seer is able to ground the Screamers and frustrate the Flamers with a warp gale, before it’s back to the fighting.

The Slaves don’t get lucky a third time against the Grinder, take another beating and pop, damaging nothing - frustratingly the Giant Rats hold, locking the Grinder down for another turn! The Stormies go next, easily trashing the Horrors and reforming to face the Tizz HQ, however it looks like the Gutters have it handled. Somehow the ninja rats stab, hack and CR out all of the remaining gateway Horrors?! Blue horrors rip apart two of the Gutters in return, but all that’s left of the daemons in that combat are the two Heralds.


Despite being M1, the Screamers flop into the Gutters, losing a daemon to shooting on the way in. Hurricane winds rip across the battlefield (12), summoning 8-9 Horrors with LOS to Skaven HQ, who then roll for their spell … and get GATEWAY It goes off on the Skaven bunker, but S3 just fries a few Clanrats and gives the survivors regen 6+. The Flamers unleash on the Stormies once more, successfully giving them regen 4+ thanks to a single dead rat

In combat, the Screamers devour their Gutter Runners, before the Grinder spitefully obliterates its Giant Rats. Tizz HQ fends off their ratty assassins, then the BSB preposterously drops two of the Gutters, breaking the survivor. The Heralds pursue, catching the Gutter and escaping the LOS of the Stormvermin. Yessssssss.

Turn 5

With the end of the game looming, the Skaven retract back to their stranglehold on the hill. HPA heads for the new gate Horrors, and blocks swift reform for the center. The Grey Seer keeps the warp gale going.


The Grinder books it for the center, looking to rip into Skaven HQ next turn or see if it can’t tempt the Hellpit for a monstrous showdown at long last. The Tizz heralds join or hover around the Flamers, and the Screamers flop around. Tzeentch himself visits the field this turn (winds 5), drifting a sheet of flame onto the regenerating Hellpit! S4 isn’t enough to wound T5 however, meaning that the IF gateway to follow goes into the Skaven bunker instead of the beast. Another weak S3 gate leaves the unit at two characters with one wound each and a Clanrat standard, all with 5+ regens or wards. No Horrors are summoned and the unit erupts with feedback, just three daemons left afterwards. Hampered by the warp gale, the Flamers can’t manage to finish the bunker.

Turn 6

The Stormvermin, ever the professionals, charge into the Grinder’s waiting flank. Slaves reclaim the hill, after the HPA falls 1” short of silencing the Horrors and their (potential) super weapon. The Grey Seer deigns to cast due to fear of miscasts, and it’s on to combat. The Stormies can’t scratch the Grinder, however the machine can only drop a single rat due to 4+ regen (THANKS TZEENTCH). A brutal instability check, followed by the same roll on the reroll, leaves the Grinder on a single wound.


Last gasp for the daemons! Everybody gets in position for Operation: Skaven HQ Dies Screaming. A withering wind ends the tournament (4), dropping daemonic ward saves but providing enough juice to get a final gateway onto the Skaven ‘bunker’! S3 again just isn’t enough, although the Clanrat standard succumbs, giving up the unit’s points - and summoning another Horror The Flamers can’t stick a wound onto the Skaven HQ, and there’s just one more combat to go: the Stormvermin stab into the Grinder and one halberd finds a soft spot. It slips through the Grinder’s armor, and then the Grinder’s ward comes up a 5! Except his ward was just reduced to 6+! CHAOS!

And with that roll, the rats pull off a SKAVEN VICTORY with a lot of objective points. So many lucky breaks the blue daemons couldn’t quite capitalize on - and triple S3 gates to decapitate the Skavenses? WTF?

---------

So in the end, I scored pretty poorly at the tournament, having gotten the least objective points of any one (1 out of 15), which I guess buried me in the standings when combined with a mediocre win/loss. All the same, always nice to get some games in. 1800 was an ok level, though I don't think it blunted filth as much as people thought it would. For the curious, the overall winner was Empire with cav core, cannons, Light magic, etc. Possibly Karl Franz too. For great justice.

- Salvage

NOOOO! Dont make us wait.

Argh! Cliffhanger

IT IS DONE

- Salvage

Wow, impressively long battle! Fun read, though man... those dice. I hope you had a good time, but I suspect that "more random" translated into "less fun" this time around :(

I appreciate the randomness, and it's why I play the army - and why I came back to Yahtzeehammer after my time spent WarmaHording. Unfortunately "more random" does tend to translate into "less victory" ... which is fine, because I don't play Warhams to win, but definitely a bit of a bummer when the only games you play anymore are in ranked events with entry fees

Somewhat related, plans are in motion for The Next Army, which will continue in the vein of not being particularly competitive, but otherwise should have little in common with these blue gribbly daemons

- Salvage

The last match was awesome! Lots of randomness on both sides, reminds me of when you were running skaven . Close(ish) to the end too with the skaven HQ so exposed and the grinder almost hanging tough. Excellent writeup, and I agree, the warhams suits you

It's probably my long history of playing Dwarves, but I'm used to seeing the HPA either go down in flames (literally) or win the game single handedly. This one seemed to do neither, which made things all the more interesting. Great report, great read, thanks.

Also, Tzeentch magic is weird.

Happy 2015! The new year has brought quite a bit of desire for tournament prep to the club, with TempleCon looming next in early February. Though I won't be attending (until they change the date from my birthday weekend), I was happy to add 100 points to my Crossroads list and have a go of it.

THE LISTS

Herald of Tzeentch – level 2 (METAL)
Herald of Tzeentch – level 2 (METAL)
Herald of Tzeentch – level 2 (TIZZ), BSB, exalted locus
Exalted Flamer
30 Horrors – standard (lichebone), musician
25 Horrors – standard, musician
6 Flamers
3 Screamers
3 Screamers
3 Screamers
Soul Grinder of Tzeentch – baleful torrent, daemonbone claw
Soul Grinder of Tzeentch – daemonbone claw

The biggest standout here is giving double grinders a shot, in the name of resiliency + combat power at the cost of the two burning chariots’ guns. This is also the return of min/max screamers – I haven’t run nine since I first started the army – and my first time proxying an exalted flamer. So quite a number of firsts for the new year!

Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch – level 3 (METAL), chaos familiar, third eye; talisman of endurance, enchanted shield, disc
Chaos Lord of Nurgle – soul feeder; sword of anti-heroes, talisman of preservation, dragonhelm, TOTS, barded steed
Exalted Hero of Nurgle – BSB, sword of might, dawnstone, charmed shield, barded daemonic mount
Sorcerer – level 1 (FIRE), burning body; potion of speed
18 Warriors of Nurgle – full command (swiftness), halberds
Chariot of Nurgle
5 Horsemen of Slaanesh – musician, flails
5 Warhounds
7 Trolls
6 Knights of Nurgle – standard (lichebone), musician, ensorcelled
Hellcannon

My clubmate and perennial sparring partner has been getting his Warriors of Mostly Nurgle ready for a couple Swedish events, so racked up the above 13 or so list and wanted to have a go. Still plenty of fight in there! But thankfully no TFG DP nonsense to deal with! (For reference my DoT list here scores like 14.5, so not far off.)


Nurgle BSB babysits the trolls, fire sorcerer hangs out with the warriors, and Nurgle lord rides with the knights. Meanwhile the Tizz BSB + general gribble up with the big horrors, and the other herald jazz hands with the smaller horrors, with the exalted flamer awkwardly tacked onto the side. Then the Slaanesh horsemen vanguard!

MAGIC
Herald: Searing Doom, Glittering Robes
Herald: Searing Doom, Final Transmutation
Herald: Bolt of Change, Tzeentch’s Firestorm
Horrors: Glean Magic (!)
Horrors: Pink Fire

Sorcerer Lord: Glittering Robes, Gehenna’s Golden Hounds, Transmutation of Lead, Final Transmutation
Sorcerer: Fireball

Overall, not great spells for either of us, but my horror blocks got pretty hosed. Not only no gateway, but no treason and no blue fire(s) to back it up. Direct damage on Pink + Firestorm is a glimmer of hope … although frankly versus WoC I already know I’ll be leaning on my Metal mages to melt through all that armor.

BATTLE
Nurgle wins the roll with the +1!

Turn 1

The Nurgle lord waves his glowing stick of hero bashing, sending his throng hurtling towards the blue daemons and their looming war engines. The trolls pass Stupidity (and will every turn), and everybody that isn’t a hellcannon rips forward more or less full speed. The Winds of Magic begin blowing with a strong 6-4 (+1 WoN | +2 DoT), which sees golden hounds pounce on a soul grinder for no wounds, a 2D6 fireball burn down 1.5 screamers from the central unit, and final transmutation dispelled with authority. Then the hellcannon targets a soul grinder, misfires and removes itself from the game


After a brief interlude of interpretive coruscation, the Tzeentch general gestures with a pseudopod and sends the left screamers charging into the upstart sorcerer lord and his black market disc. The other two screamer packs fly in to divert the knights and threaten the chariot, as grinders form a menacing flank, horrors shuffle about and flamers point their mittens at the woefully overexposed (but perhaps that was the point!) horsemen. The Winds blow 6-2 (+2 WoN) – Slaanesh is summoned but deigns to intervene – giving enough juice to have an unboosted searing doom dispelled and the following boosted searing doom fail to cast. Then a grinder misfires his harvester cannon, taking a wound Unperturbed, the exalted flamer pummels three horsemen with S4 blue fire (min strength!), and despite needing 7/8+ to hit, the pack of regular flamers unhorses the last two with an extreme number of shots.

In the thrilling first turn combat, the screamers can’t get through the sorcerer’s 1/4+ (rerolling wards of 1) save, lose a couple but hold like tiny skydevil bosses.

Turn 2

Perhaps goaded on by the wall of trolls behind them, the warhounds hurl themselves into the horror bus, hoping to assassinate some daemonic heroes if they can get lucky. The Nurgle lord leads his knights in a hearty trampling of the waiting screamers, whilst sundry other chaos units power onwards. A boisterous 6-5 (+2 DoT) Winds comes to naught when a 2D6 fireball is dispelled shortly before the sorcerer lord fails to cast transmutation of lead.

Combat is slightly more thrilling: the warhounds succeed in wounding the Tizz general once, lose three of their number and are sent packing; the chaos lord and friends liquefy their screamers; and the sorcerer lord baps one of his own screamers for a wound but remains otherwise locked up.


‘Operation: Apply 590 Points in Grinders, Profit?’ goes into effect as both soul grinders thunder into the trollstar. Other than this act of bravado, the Tizz battleline prepares to do something about the S5 wall of chaos armor heading its way … and feed the smaller horrors to it if that plan fails. Rightmost screamers also overfly their chariot, sprinkling it with barbs to the tune of two wounds. A well-timed 5-5 (+1 DoT | +1 WoN) Winds whips through the field, boosting ward saves right when needed, along with giving abundant power dice. Bubble robes goes through, bringing both grinders up to 2/4+ saves (!), however both searing dooms into the knights are once more dispelled, and the wishful glean into the fire sorcerer is scrolled. In shooting, the exalted flamer cooks 8 S9 shots into the warriors … yet abysmal hit rolls mean only two fall. The flamers follow this up with a woeful number of shots, which at 7+ to hit can’t manage anything. The warriors do gain 6+ regen though!

Combat time. We do the boring combat first: the sorcerer lord finishes off a screamer, but they don’t care and hold him in place another turn. In the main event, the Nurgle BSB dodges both iron claws, then escapes both of the daemonbone claws that follow them up (the grinders needed 6+ to hit, thanks to garbage WS + MoN, but with Hatred I figured four shots would yield one S10 hit … sadly, twas not to be). Though the BSB can’t make it through the machines’ heavy wards, his trolls do manage to puke a wound off of the wounded grinder. Both daemon engines lose but hold easily.

Turn 3

“Gentlemen,” the Nurgle lord addresses his coterie, as he carefully doffs his shaggoth-skin bowler and places it into its blood-quenched iron hat box for safe keeping, “let us commence the grind.”

Both the Nurgle warriors and knights smash into the waiting horrors, as warhounds rally and chariot trundles in. A moderate 3-3 (+2 DoT) Winds gives all the dice the sorcerer lord needs to IF final transmutation onto the large horror block: the Tizz BSB is turned to gold, along with 13+ of his closest frenemies! The miscast that follows is a 4, although neither screamer nor sorcerer is wounded in the blast, and the caster is able to resist the pull of the warp.

The warm liquid goo phase that follows is remarkably tame. While the sorcerer lord (technically just his traitorous disc!) is able to free himself from the last screamer, the grinder/troll combat stalemates (both grinders again swung for the BSB using their insta-gib claws and missed), and the horror beatdown smashfest defies expectations. A mere two horrors are killed thanks to some superb 4+ ward shenanigans, for the loss of the fire sorcerer and a Nurgle warrior! The horrors still lose to CR – that charging-off-the-hill bonus! – but don’t care.


Despite the lockdown of last turn, the Tizz general has the distinct impression that things aren’t really working out, and initiates further emergency measures – bailing out of units, etc. The last screamer pack swoops over their chariot again, causing a further wound, as flamers aim to end it shortly. A powerful 6-5 Winds pulls at the sorcerer lord (he contemptuously resists), then is put to mediocre ends by the daemonic wizards: a cheeky Pink fire aimed at the warhounds (but suspiciously threatening a lot of engaged chaos dudes) is dispelled, followed by an irresistible boosted searing doom from the Tizz general into the sorcerer lord. It causes a lamentable 4 hits and a single wound, for the herald losing all his magic levels. Then the flamers find it in themselves to burn down the chariot.

Combat is entered once more, and the resolve of the daemons begins to falter. The grinders grudgingly switch to pummeling the trolls with S6 hits (for two wounds), and the wounded grinder takes three wounds (!) to vomit in return. Somehow both grinders hold without a BSB reroll. The smashfest then gets smashy, with many horrors dying, a few warriors being dragged down by a wave of blue horrors, and the remaining daemons steadfasting.

Turn 4

With nearly everything else happily locked in combat, the sorcerer lord swoops towards the Tizz HQ to do stuff. A wisp of a 2-2 (+1 WoN | +1 DoT) Winds is enough to IF final transmutation once more onto the ‘big’ horror block, though this time it only engoldens a few horrors. The sorcerer lord loses a level and forgets the spell in exchange.

Brutality continues in the combat phase. The grinders go for one more round of 6+ claw swipes at the BSB, before the wounded machine is melted by vomit. His fellow holds tight. Meanwhile, the engaged horror block loses a handful of daemons, accomplishes nothing and, rather key at this point, refuses to pop.


Despite knowing that the horrors being ground down are going to almost assuredly be finished this turn, letting the Nurgle kill units spin around and charge in their turn … the Tizz general still commands his skirmish troops to sit in easy charge range, rather than GTFO Otherwise, Tizz heroes swarm around the sorcerer lord. For vengeance. A noisome 4-2 Winds wafts across the field, bringing the attention of Papa Nurgle at long last: he visits light sniffles upon the non-general Tizz herald (0 wounds), along with a terminal case of mange for the warhounds. The rapidly dwindling engaged horror ‘block’ tries for another cheeky (and possibly illegal?) pink fire, which is dispelled, then the Tizz not-general hits the sorcerer lord with a D6 searing doom for another wound. The S7 blue fire from the exalted flamer that follows can’t end the mortal wizard.

Combat is extremely final: the grinder fails one last time to crush the Nurgle BSB, takes a couple puke wounds and dissolves with the break test; and the horrors die. All Nurgle units spin to face fresh targets.

Turn 5

Trollstar jumps on the remnants of the horror bus, Nurgle warriors grab the screamers, Nurgle knights wheel into the flamers (who are too close to stand and shoot, of course). The 4-2 (+1 WoN) Winds remain steady, this time seeing glittering robes on the warriors dispelled, and transmutation of lead on the screamers go irresistible! The sorcerer lord cascades once more, but this time can’t resist the pull of the Warp – he is dragged screaming to begin millennia of torment as Tzeentch’s play thing. And/or become a daemon prince. They’re sort of similar, given how DP of Tizz fair on the table

Anyway, the horrors are reduced to jelly by the troll jamboree (though they finish off that wounded troll!) and the brutes follow into the bemused not-general herald; the screamers are hooked from the air by warriors and gutted before swinging; and the flamers are pummeled and popped by the knights – though not before taking down a knight! Hurr! Everybody overruns.


Last gasps for Tizz. The Tzeentch general and exalted flamer scatter, as the not-general glibly faces yet another disincorporealization. A 5-3 Winds calls Slaanesh back to the field (s/he still isn’t interested in the smellies), giving enough juice for an IF final transmutation into the Nurgle warriors. A few die … and S6 feedback pops the head of the Tizz general. Doh.

The Nurgle BSB challenges the Tizz herald, then decapitates it before it can register what’s happening. Such is the BSB’s disdain that he doesn’t roll on the Eye. (We forgot ) The trollstar turns on the spot to face the exalted flamer.

Turn 6

As the warriors fail Stupidity and stumble forward, fighting over the golden corpses of their brethren, the Nurgle BSB hurls himself out of his unit at the last Tizz model on the field. He flubs it and just manages to get his base clear of his trolls (2” )


A slow clap begins to echo across the field: this is the exalted flamer’s moment! He dashes forward and charges up his fire shooting appendages … pauses for a third 5-3 Wind that goes straight to Slaanesh’s answering machine … then levels the Nurgle BSB with S9 blue fire. Toasty!

Despite ending with a bang, we didn’t need to do any math to know this was a NURGLE VICTORY. While the exalted flamer had been a fairly rousing success (mostly because he only costs 90 points), the grinder gambit had failed in the face of the Mark of Nurgle and/or not fighting single targets or infantry, Lore of Tizz spell selection meant horror summoning wasn’t really a possibility, and my attempt to avoid six dicing the Metal mega-spells resulted in all my anti-armor hard counters amounting to nothing. Though the game was still fun and mayhem ensued, I feel like this match was less my usual ‘OMF dice madness!’ and more an example of how toothless and derpy my army can be in the face of an army that’s just better at what it does, while being totally balanced at the same time.

Final props to that hellcannon though

- Salvage

Hello again, gentle readers. I finally played some warhams, but (spoiler) I fear this is mostly a tale of woe. Let us carry on with the heavy task of recounting …

THE LISTS

Herald of Tzeentch – level 2 (METAL)
Herald of Tzeentch – level 2 (METAL)
Herald of Tzeentch – level 2 (TIZZ), BSB, exalted locus

30 Horrors – standard, musician
25 Horrors – standard, musician
6 Flamers
3 Screamers
3 Screamers
3 Screamers
Soul Grinder of Tzeentch – daemonbone claw, warp gaze
Soul Grinder of Tzeentch – daemonbone claw

Dialing back down to 2400 in preparation for Crossroads in March. While I have the exalted flamer bought, built and based, I really hate that 40mm base, and having yet another little solo running around waiting for his moment to roll some dice (whilst trying to stay alive until then) isn’t all that exciting for me. Warp gaze isn’t so different - one or two shots a game, maybe something happens, probably not, meh. But it’s on a T7 uber-monster, and I don’t have to paint it separately

General - rune fang, charmed shield, luckstone, barded mount (etc)
Wizard Lord - level 4 (HEAVENS), talisman of preservation, dispel scroll, pony
BSB - dawnstone, TOTS, great weapon, barded mount (etc)
Wizard - level 1 (FIRE), scroll of shielding, pony
Warrior Priest - great weapon, barded mount (etc)

12 Knights of the Inner Circle - full command (discipline)
7+ Knights - standard?, musician
5 Knights - musician
4 Demigryphs - standard, musician
4 Demigryphs - standard, musician
5 Outriders - musician
Cannon
Cannon

Something like that – I know somebody in the knight bus had the Pelt of the Skaven Slayer (or something), so caused fear. I didn’t jot down any notes … about anything actually, so this will be a little rough in spots. Apologies. It should also be noted that we’re using ETC rules, hence the hills are infinite height and the tower is impassable.


General, BSB & Warrior Priest knight bus up with their inner circle, wizard lord rides with larger knights and his lackey with the smaller knights. Meanwhile, Tizz BSB & general join up with the smaller horrors, and the disposable herald with the big horrors. Outriders vanguard up.

MAGIC
Herald: Searing Doom, Enchanted Blades
Herald: Searing Doom, Final Transmutation
Herald: Blue Fire, Tzeentch’s Firestorm
Horror 1: Gateway
Horror 2: Pink Fire

Wizard Lord: Iceshard Blizzard, Thunderbolt, Harmonic Convergence, Comet
Wizard: Fireball

In other words, I got just about the perfect spell selection, with perhaps Bolt being preferable to Pink Fire and Treason to Firestorm

BATTLE
Empire wins the roll with ease, and begins ominously loading up those cannons …

Turn 1

The General of the Empire nods at his stalwart standard bearer, who takes it upon himself to flick the wrist and signal the army onwards. A demigryph cops a branch to the face in the general sally, before a sizeable magical gust sees him and his fellow monstrous cavalry blessed with harmonic convergence. The cannons then roar to life, but perhaps too much life - the left machine misfires and will miss the next turn, while the right explodes out right! Auspicious! And under the cover of this cacophony, the outriders unload on the central soul grinder, missing all 15 shots thanks to the woods.


The Herald in charge of the daemons quiets the excited gibbering and gives the signal to receive the charge, as he waves the screamers up the flanks or into position. Tzeentch himself visits the field in the opening magic phase (4-1), raining pyrotechnics upon the knight bus and the smallest knights to no avail, before the large horrors’ poor casting of gateway is dispelled on dice. Finally the central soul grinder glares at the knight bus, but his beam of hate falls wide.

Turn 2

Already sick of the shenanigans, the Empire frontline crashes into the blue daemons, making a number of charges that the Tizz general thought unlikely (all charges required 9-10 and were got handily thanks to swiftstride). The Empire backfield gallops out of the range of screamer barbs, followed by a strong magic phase resulting in two screamers fried by a thunderbolt (+ roiling skies) and the central grinder frozen by iceshard blizzard – but harmonic on the knight bus was stopped with a vengeance.

With no shooting, it’s already on to some decidedly serious combats! The knight bus reaps a brutal harvest in horrors, however the wave of blue horrors released into the nethers of the knights’ horses ends up dragging down one knight, which was precisely enough to maintain steadfast. Next, the frozen grinder swings wide with his daemonbone claw, takes a wound to a chocobo, and a second to instability (combined with iceshard). Meanwhile, the thawed grinder also whiffs with his claw, but is too tough to wound and aces his instability check.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the grind


As if it were destined, the left flight of screamers charges the befuddled cannon crew, while other screamers hide or get in position to make a run at some tasty wizard flesh. Flamers and Tizz HQ scooch around and prepare for an awesome magic phase to make up for the last one … but instead are gifted with reduced ward saves (2-2), S2 (1+1) blue fire into the smallest knights, and a failed casting of baby searing doom.

Flamers are yet out of range (and struggling to find a place in this game to be honest), so back to the grind. The knight bus jellies a number of horrors and a few more with instability, however they manage to grope a wound onto the warrior priest for their troubles. The central grinder misses with his claw again, proves too tough to wound, and takes a further wound from instability (thanks iceshard!); while nearby his warmer brother explodes a demi with his own claw, winning combat but unable to break the griffon-pony-lions. Oh, the cannon crew are torn asunder and the screamers gleefully overrun.

Turn 3

The outriders, knowing they’re the squishiest target on the board, continue to get away from screamer barbs, as the wizard lord about faces and begins bristling with electrical energy. Yet another strong winds roll sees all three of the victorious screamers fried by a thunderbolt (+ roiling skies + reduced wards), the central grinder re-icesharded, and a 2D6 fireball paff off the flamers (if not dispelled).

In fighting, the knight bus ends the horrors, the herald pops to instability, and the warrior priest is dragged down in the process – take that Sigmarite! The frozen grinder manages to grab a demi in his iron claw and tear it in half with his daemonbone one, but somehow takes two wounds to angry AP critters in the process. The other grinder cops a wound as well, however is only able to playfully ruffle the feathers of his own bird monsters this round.


Screamers, go! We got this! The solo screamer overflies the outriders at long last, dropping one with barbs, and the larger flight of skydevils parks in front of the knight bus (they had reformed to face left more, so the screamers were angling them back towards the board edge). Ready for a blisteringly powerful winds roll to make use of the three wizards left on the table, Tizz instead is gifted snake eyes – the various unengaged units miraculously all pass through the instability unscathed, though the S3 (2+1) pink fire that squirts over the smallest knights manages nothing.

Kaiju Big Battle continues with the central grinder nibbled to death by a demi, as the other grinder tags and splatters his second gryph. Boom!

Turn 4

Outriders GTFO, wizard lord is a-charging up his lightning, demis pounce on Tizz HQ (and take a second wound from trees on the way), and knight bus heads into their blocking screamers. Decent magic thunderbolts the solo screamer and fireball bounces off the flamers (harmonic on demis is crushed).

Wrassle time: the knight bus skewers a screamer, they take their instability with all the negatives, and reality blinks, bringing the screamer back! The horrors are not as lucky – particularly the Tizz general, who is devoured by demis – but there are a good number left after steadfast. The remaining grinder and his demigryphs share a smoke break this turn.


Flamers inch up into range, then with some trepidation it’s time to roll for winds again … and they come up a very average 7. Thanks to lots of dead wizards, nothing of use happens (I actually think the pink fire happened this turn and nothing happened last turn, but either way, weaksauce flame template did nothing.) The flamers wave their mittens at the smallest knights and kill one! They gain regen 6+ as a result.

Combat is even more brutal than expected. The knight bus tramples their screamers a second time, grinding them out properly. The demis lay into the horrors with gusto, and though the poor blind gryph who kept hitting trees is put out of his misery, the daemons are soundly thrashed, including the BSB who is neatly gobbled up. Without a reroll, the horrors 6-6 their steadfast and pop back into the Warp. Balllllllls. While all this is happening the grinder and his demis discuss the geopolitical turmoil in Kislev and the coming of the End Times.

Turn 5

Once more with feeling! Knight bus hammers into the flamer flank, more demis join the fight with the surviving grinder. For the first time all match the Heavens are quiet (low winds or failed first casting with wizard lord), so it’s all on to the fighting. The knight bus pokes a couple flamers, however the daemons are stubborn in a wood and hold, then successfully reform as well. Revived by the arrival of all the demis, the grinder grabs a chicken and rends it asunder, taking no wounds in the process. Asked to take an instability test, the grinder resets time out of spite.


Now that all of those meddlesome daemonic wizards are off the table, the winds of magic rip through the field, boosting the ward saves of the few remaining gribbles (10!). The flamers make the best of it, losing a couple more of their number but stubbornly clinging to corporeality. And finally, the long beleaguered grinder fails to squash that last standard bearer from the demis he’d been fighting for 8+ rounds of combat, and ends the game with a second reality blink. Because can.

While we may have lost track of turns in there, I feel like we played it all the way out, for my grinder to have his day in the sun if nothing else. Regardless, hours of grinding and frustrating dice across the board ended up an EMPIRE VICTORY. (And I do mean frustrating dice, both his that never rolled 1's - on an army of 1+ saves this is huuuuuuge - and mine that could hardly manage over a 3. Count all the times that those grinders rolled to hit, and consider that 1/3 of those were at 3+ thanks to failed fear checks. Not to mention all the failed saves. Plus the garbage winds of magic, obviously.)

All that aside, still good to put daemon on table, gives me a little boost to finish painting the grinders over the next month. Particularly as they're the only things that did anything

Figure I've got about four more games before Crossroads: three game prep tournament the week before and a hopeful pickup along the way. Stay tuned!

- Salvage

For shame, Dakka - two excellent pictorial bat reps and nothing posted! Probably just an indication of how everyone is just unsure what to think / care about with fantasy with the new edition rumors still in flux.

How did Crossroads go, Salvage, and have you stuck to the dual-grinder setup? I'd love to see a pic of the event if you took any, particularly of your own army all in one place

'Tides! Thanks for checking in on this thread. I have been really quiet down here for a while, and though I could blame this -

 RiTides wrote:
For shame, Dakka - two excellent pictorial bat reps and nothing posted!

- on not posting a batrep since February, in truth I just haven't been playing much of anything. Real Life, and trying to get anything painted at all ever, has been more interesting (or at least a whole lot more pressing) than gaming of any kind.

How did Crossroads go, Salvage, and have you stuck to the dual-grinder setup? I'd love to see a pic of the event if you took any, particularly of your own army all in one place

Hells yea, you're totally right. I owe ya'll a Crossroads round up. Not just because I promised to log all my DoT battles here, but how many Xroads have I covered? Why stop now!

DAEMONS OF TZEENTCH 2400



Herald of Tzeentch – level 2 (TIZZ), BSB, exalted locus = 200
Herald of Tzeentch – level 2 (METAL), lesser gift = 150
Herald of Tzeentch – level 2 (METAL) = 125

30 Horrors – standard, musician = 410
25 Horrors – standard, musician = 345

6 Flamers = 240
3 Screamers = 120
3 Screamers = 120
3 Screamers = 120

Soul Grinder of Tzeentch – daemonbone claw = 270
Burning Chariot
Burning Chariot

I’ll be back with some game wrap-ups tonight or tomorrow, big deadline today at work

- Salvage

don't worry salvage, people follow this log.

what did you base your big screamers on? those look way better than the chariots!

also, i am a big fan of darker color-schemed tzeentch armies. mine is similar.

Cheers Slamma!

slamma wrote:
what did you base your big screamers on? those look way better than the chariots!

And thanks! I used Titan Forge Skydevils, which also come with a rider version if you want to rep the exalted flamer (or are crazy and want to put a herald up there). I get a lot of compliments on the two of them ... which makes it extra hard to get this second grinder painted to replace them with While their SD6+3 grapeshot is pimping, 12" range combined with S4/T4 can make it tough to get a lot of mileage out of them. That and SGoT are the only high strength face beaters in the list, outside of the lord-level daemons.

- Salvage

i will look into those!

i haven't played my little gribblies as a fantasy army yet… people here only play 40k… aside from reading this log, or perhaps in a condensed form, any tips on how to put together a force?
i'm familiar with fantasy, i have a sizable warriors army, but daemons seem really different...

While I usually take photos of a good number of the armies in attendance - because there are always soooo many nice ones - this year I really slacked off. I blame all the drinking + my games always taking the entire 2.5 hours, because Grind. All the same, here's some

TOKEN ARMY SHOTS



First round opponent's Empire (spoiler!)



Triple thirster, double grinder DoK! Of the five daemon armies in attendance, I think he went on to do the best, despite an overly cautious first round vs HE, which you can read about here.



Nice VC? Or maybe I was documenting the unit-filling finesse of those horrors.



Ermahgerd pink choas!



I think this is where my vow to document all the armies fell apart? Anyway, one of several TK lists!



Skittles daemons, led by what I think was a 'normal' LoC, not Kairos. Played next to him in my second round, probably throwing off his Reign of Chaos no doubt







Mike Norton's WoC for this year, and my vote for player's choice, possibly based on the use of flooring alone (Norton didn't end up winning, forget who did?)

That's all I got, though plenty of shots to come from the games themselves. Stay tuned!

- Salvage

Oh man, awsome pictures! I really dig the odd, almost pastel colors of that last army, very cool selection of tones!

Regarding this:

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Triple thirster, double grinder DoK! Of the five daemon armies in attendance, I think he went on to do the best, despite an overly cautious first round vs HE, which you can read about here.

Thanks for the link and I like his army idea, but a pet peeve of mine is seeing large plastic kits that look basically monopose repeated. The second Mountain King counts-as-grinder needed to have it's raised arm repositioned, or something!

I think you'll get more folks looking down in this section now that 9th edition rumors are really picking up steam. Just a month to go and maybe we'll all be into square bases fantasy again

Edit: And somehow, the first version of this post had me geeking out over everything that followed that I didn't comment on the long-await army shot from your prior post - it looks great! I was a little concerned previously that the disc-guy might not fit in since he looks a bit techy, but with the Soulgrinder in there, they fit together nicely! I think that's a trend with your armies, some crazy elements come together to form a cohesive whole . I really love the look and also quite like the minimalist display board, is that laser etched acrylic, or something else?

 RiTides wrote:
Oh man, awsome pictures! I really dig the odd, almost pastel colors of that last army, very cool selection of tones!

A lot of Norton's armies have a cell shade thing going on, which some people (like me) really like, and paint judges either love or grudgingly respect because he's Mike Norton This WoC I think are the most extreme version of this - I think I liked his skink-heavy Lizards better from a year or two back, but still impressive. And that basing!

I like his army idea, but a pet peeve of mine is seeing large plastic kits that look basically monopose repeated. The second Mountain King counts-as-grinder needed to have it's raised arm repositioned, or something!

Word. I like doubling up on giant kits, but I always go to some length to change them both when I do. I feel like the Glacial King would make a great #2 for this dude, but we'll see how things look in 9E. Hell, five giant daemonic monsters might just be awesome, MC spam in 40k certainly is a thing!

I think you'll get more folks looking down in this section now that 9th edition rumors are really picking up steam. Just a month to go and maybe we'll all be into square bases fantasy again

Annnnnd we'll see if I'm down here telling you about Fantastical things Battle Chronicler certainly works for round based games, but I've yet to do a report in BC for a skirmish game, just so many circles to swarm around.

Related comment I was saving for later: I'm currently signed up for Crossroads Fall 2015. However it's undecided if it'll be a legacy () 8E GT or a straight out of the book 9E GT, like we did shortly after 8E hit. Not sure I can fork over $60 on that gamble, given money is do before the next edition hits - whether that's July 11 or later.

Edit: And somehow, the first version of this post had me geeking out over everything that followed that I didn't comment on the long-await army shot from your prior post - it looks great! I was a little concerned previously that the disc-guy might not fit in since he looks a bit techy, but with the Soulgrinder in there, they fit together nicely! I think that's a trend with your armies, some crazy elements come together to form a cohesive whole . I really love the look and also quite like the minimalist display board, is that laser etched acrylic, or something else?

Thanks! Yea, the grinder just continues the theme of using weird 40k models in a Fantasy army. All the characters and plenty other things are 1988 Chaos Renegades, but of course back in 1988 there was plenty of Chaos things crossing over between the realms. So a nod to a pre-bubbleverse concept of shared dimensions

Oh, and the display board is a beautiful sheet of black acrylic with a custom vinyl DoT decal - you know, the kind that go on cars I have two more, still wondering why I haven't stuck one on my Fit .......

- Salvage

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Related comment I was saving for later: I'm currently signed up for Crossroads Fall 2015. However it's undecided if it'll be a legacy () 8E GT or a straight out of the book 9E GT, like we did shortly after 8E hit. Not sure I can fork over $60 on that gamble, given money is do before the next edition hits - whether that's July 11 or later.

Maybe we'll get some halfway decent rumors before the due date - I'm surprised they wouldn't adjust the deadline slightly based on the new edition, but then again I'm sure they've already paid for the space / etc and need to run the event regardless of what ruleset is chosen.

And you might not need to go round-base for bat-reps... if it's like LOTR there could still be square units! I'm holding out hope for that... honestly, if that and chaos dwarfs still being legal in some fashion worked out, it might be the best of both worlds for me and finally get me to assemble and paint commission the army . I could even consider going counts-as with normal dwarfs, but I don't think it will be a fit because of all the other awesome gribblies CD can run (monsters, monstrous infantry, monstrous cavalry, and a bunch of cheap gobbos).

So, any hints on how things went for the Tizz host at this past Crossroads?

 RiTides wrote:
So, any hints on how things went for the Tizz host at this past Crossroads?

Stay awhile and listen ...

GAME ONE: EMPIRE

Arch Lector – talisman of preservation, dragonhelm, horn of Sigismund, heavy armor, shield; war altar
Wizard Lord – level 4 (LIGHT), power stone
Wizard – level 2 (LIGHT), dispel scroll
Wizard – level 2 (LIGHT), scroll of shielding
Captain – BSB, armor of meteoric iron, great weapon
Captain – ogre blade, charmed shield, luckstone, full plate, barded warhorse
Captain – enchanted shield, dragonbane gem, lance, full plate, pegasus
Witch Hunter

11 Inner Circle Knights – full command
45 Halberdiers – full command
> 5 Archers

4 Demigryph Knights – musician
Great Cannon

Steam Tank



HoT1 – Searing Doom, Final Transmutation
HoT2 – Searing Doom, Enchanted Blades
HoT3 – Treason, Firestorm
H1 – Pink Fire
H2 – Glean Magic

Lesser Gift: Wand of Whimsy (0)
Regen Tokens: 4

Reign of Chaos: 2,4,7,7,11,12

Empire Light Council in the first round playing DoT without Gateway – in fact with no spell worth casting that could summon horrors? This was Warhammer on Hard Mode! I settled down to rely on my multiple Metal nuke spells … until my first magic phase. 1-1 on the first Winds roll of the GT wounded a single screamer, then gave just enough dice to 6-6 a little Searing Doom and drag my general gribbling back to the warp, along with his much needed spells.

The Reign of Comedy continued by dropping wards in Turn 2, which paired nicely with the barrage of Banishment and Shem’s to remove the chariots, the screamers, etc. The knights / halberdiers got smacked around and regen’d up thanks to warpflame, before eventually joining the grind with the horrors.

The only real upside was the grinder biding his time out of LoS (thanks to ETC terrain rules), before cresting his hill and tempting fate. The cannon misfired (or was being devoured by screamers), followed by demis charging in and bouncing off the daemon engine. A well-timed Treason helped the grinder break and catch the demis, overrunning into the waltar’s flank, then getting rear-charged by the waiting stank.



The grinder pushed his luck and swung for the arch lector, but whether or not he squashed the little man in his daemonbone claw, it mattered not, as the stank ground the monster out and the altar preserved its VP either way.

Finally, in Turn 6 as the last of the horrors were being ground to goo (or steadfasting eternally in the case of the big horrors), a 6-6 Winds summoned moar horrors with Gateway, who blasted something but IIRC did more damage to themselves with the miscast.

Victory Points: 678 vs 2075

Hard to say this wasn’t a brutal way to start the tournament, between the rough matchup, the poor spell selection, immediately losing my general, and the Winds acting up

GAME TWO: VAMPIRE COUNTS

Vampire Lord – level 4 (VAMPS), red fury, quickblood, beguile, ogre blade, enchanted shield, talisman of preservation, heavy armor, barded nightmare
Vampire – level 1 (VAMPS), BSB (screaming), dread knight, lance, shield, heavy armor, barded nightmare
Vampire – level 2 (DEATH), dread knight, lance, shield, heavy armor, barded nightmare
Vampire – level 1 (VAMPS), dispel scroll, dread knight, lance, shield, heavy armor, barded nightmare

60 Zombies – standard
60 Zombies – standard
10 Skeletons – standard (scarecrow), musician
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves

12 Black Knights – standard (swiftness), musician, lances, barding
3 Vargheists

Terrorgheist



HoT1 – Searing Doom, Final Transmutation
HoT2 – Searing Doom, Enchanted Blades
HoT3 – Treason, Gateway
H1 – Blue Fire
H2 – Bolt of Change

Lesser Gift: Wand of Whimsy (1)
Regen Tokens: 9

Reign of Chaos: 7,7,9,9,8,11



12’ of Daemons!

Round two and I was up against a super nice dude, playing his third game of Fantasy ever. The scenario was Blood & Glory, with battle points for breaking the enemy first, not being broken back, etc. He deployed his knightbus very far away from most of my army, keeping all 120 zombies in between the two of us, which had two major impacts: 1) he wasn’t able to bring the blenderlord + friends’ insane killing power to bear until late, with so much in the way of them; 2) I realized at some point that in order to get the extra BP for max points, I wouldn’t be able to assassinate his general to break him – I’d have to go through every single zombie to get at their standards

He was also pretty psyched out by my grinder’s insta-gib claw, so I made a mini-game of the big guy stalking his knight bus across the field:

Turn 0


Turn 1


Turn 2


Turn 3


Sadly he was finally charged and dismantled by the vamp lord, but still a fun time. Ultimately, I really should have gotten him stuck into the zombies, where his t-stomp would have been tremendous, though in my defense the grinder’s huge base made it hard to fit in there.

As you can see in the grinder POV shots, undead things were busy dying (again). I took first turn and punched screamers through each wolf unit and into the VC backfield in short order, obliterated the terrorgheist when it hopped into my lines to scream a few wounds off a chariot, then committed to killing zombies in earnest.



Even the flamers got in on the party, merrily roasting deadites up close. (if you didn’t know, flamers have warpflame in combat as well as shooting, hence all those regen tokens )



This is around Turn 5, with the grinder gone and zombies dwindling. The knight bus had taken a serious bruising from a Turn 2 IF Gateway (miscast = BSB forgot his spells!), and a Turn 5 IF Final Trans that sniped out two vamps (miscast = general forgot his spells!), before getting well and truly stuck on the smaller horrors.





The vamps would end the game there. Of course, the main event was the great Daemons of Tzeentch vs Zombie battles. One chariot + six screamers were able to rend their zombies apart and claim their standard, but how about those flamers? Six daemons with WS2 S4 A2 managed to get 120 zombies down to a single, 2+ regenerating undead standard bearer

Victory Points: 1424 vs 420

I wasn’t able to grab the extra BP, but it was a solid win – and a crazy game – all the same.

GAME THREE: EMPIRE

Wizard Lord – level 4 (LIGHT), scepter of stability
Arch Lector – mace of helstrum, armor of meteoric iron
Wizard – level 2 (HEAVENS), dispel scroll
Captain – BSB, biting blade, dragonhelm, shield, full plate
Warrior Priest – enchanted shield, dragonbane gem, heavy armor, barded warhorse
Witch Hunter

11 Inner Circle Knights – full command (gleaming pennant)
40 Halberdiers – full command
> 14 Spearmen

5 Demigryph Knights – standard (steel), musician
Great Cannon
5 Pistoliers – musician

Steam Tank
Celestial Hurricanum



HoT1 – Searing Doom, Golden Hounds
HoT2 – Searing Doom, Transmutation of Lead
HoT3 – Pink Fire, Glean Magic
H1 – Bolt of Change
H2 – Gateway

Lesser Gift: Noxious Breath
Regen Total: 2

DoT Winds: 9,6,7,6,8,2

Round three, time to finish the first day with even more Empire and even more Light magic. Meeting Engagement added extra complications to the mix, but at least I had Gateway and was up against a quality gent I’ve played at least one other time at Crossroads. Though we were both really laid back – and I had started drinking the first of eight Oculto for that night – the game ended up being really cagey and low scoring.



While my fast things shot up the flanks, the rest of the boys mostly held back at max magic range, with the grinder hiding as best as he could in the shadow of a hill, before I think eventually coping it to that unit of knights.



Probably the most exciting / ridiculous part of the game happened mid-field, where the demis bravely sauntered across the table long-wise, continually breaking and rallying after being blasted turn after turn with Tizz spells. Much to the frustration of my lurking chariot, which had to fight for a chance to unload on them, thanks to all the compulsory movement they were undergoing.

Victory Points: 580 vs 885

A minor win for the Empire in the end, and a close to one of the lower scoring days of my Crossroads career. I went on to drink a lot more Oculto and play a ton of King of New York

- Salvage

Nice report! Bummer about the rough handling at the hands of the Empire. Great to see the lads all painted up though!

 Wehrkind wrote:
Nice report! Bummer about the rough handling at the hands of the Empire. Great to see the lads all painted up though!

Thanks man! Yea, the definite best thing about these games was seeing all 2400 points of my army painted, amassed and in motion. I think I started building this army almost two years before this GT? Long time coming.

As for those two tough Empire matchups, you ain't seen nothing yet

GAME FOUR: HIGH ELVES

Alarielle the Everqueen
Archmage – level 4 (HIGH), book of hoeth, talisman of preservation
Noble – BSB, sword of anti-heroes, shield of the merwyrm, dragon armor

12 Silver Helms – full command, shields
5 Ellyrion Reavers – musician, bows, spears
5 Ellyrion Reavers – bows, spears
5 Ellyrion Reavers – bows, spears

28 White Lions – full command (banner of the world dragon), shields
24 Phoenix Guard – full command (razor banner)

Great Eagle
Great Eagle



HoT1 – Enchanted Blades, Transmutation of Lead
HoT2 – Searing Doom, Final Transmutation
HoT3 – Treason, Bolt of Change
H1 – Pink Fire
H2 – Gateway

Lesser Gift: Dark Blessing
Regen Tokens: 2

Reign of Chaos: 6,6,5,10,11,9

Slightly hungover – Oculto combines all the downsides of bad light beer with bad tequila – I was at least happy to see I was matched up against a pretty standard Dwarf list. The grinder may not do much beyond cower for the first few turns, but eventually I’d kill all the warmachines and set about maiming anything that wasn’t a hammerstar.

Except apparently the pairings were wrong. I was moved one table up, to face the Everqueen Herself

In my experience, BotW elves (so most of them) vs DoT means I’m liking going to draw, unless it’s a heavily comped event and the BotWstar isn’t loaded with all the points, or I get very lucky. ETC is not heavy comp, so there was that. But Alarielle made the hard counter matchup extremely unpleasant – for those who don’t know (which was me until this game), on top of all her other bonuses (loads of spell options, can recast one a game, has a regen aura, has D6W attak vs Forces of Destruction in combat), she also automatically does something like D6 S4 hits to all daemons within 12” at the beginning of her magic phase. I’m playing MSU T3-4 daemons which need to encircle the BotWstar to kill it, staying about 12” away. And we’re playing a scenario where you get bonus points for being close to the center of the table at the end.



Well if I go first I might still have a chance, with that extra cast of Final Trans …



Seizing the first turn, Alarielle sent her force full bore into the daemonic host. There was a glimmer of hope (and trepidation!) when Papa Nurgle visited the field twice in a row, culling an entire unit of reavers and an eagle, while leaving the blue daemons with nary a case of the sniffles. And a combination of Final Trans + Gateway + soul grinder + flamers managed to finish off the phoenix guard (at the cost of the grinder), but the inevitable came to pass as it so often does, and Alarielle began melting through horrors at a frightening pace.



Meanwhile my flotilla of skysharks had done whatever it was they were doing on the flanks (killing eagles and reavers I’m guessing), and were cruising back in to surround the star and unleash ‘Death By A Thousand Dice’ upon it, while weathering the Everqueen’s hater aura.



Too soon all the horrors had mean reduced to jelly, in fact so had nearly all of my army. My screamers and chariots did what they could to get either the BotWstar or the silver helms to either break or get below 25% (honestly I should have focused entirely on the helms immediately, not just in the last turn), but couldn’t manage it.



That’s a shot of the end game. Amazingly, that’s 1570 points of HE vs 270 points of DoT, with Alarielle’s crew squatting on the central objective. I could probably come up with a final total if you wanted it, but clearly, I didn’t limp away from this match with many points!

GAME FIVE: DAEMONS OF NURGLE

Daemon Prince of Nurgle – level 4 (NURGLE), greater gift, daemonic flight, chaos armor
Herald of Nurgle – BSB, level 1 (NURGLE), greater locus
Herald of Nurgle – level 1 (NURGLE), lesser gift, greater locus

24 Plaguebearers – full command
24 Plaguebearers – full command

3 Beasts of Nurgle
3 Beasts of Nurgle
3 Beasts of Nurgle
5 Furies of Nurgle
5 Furies of Nurgle

Skull Cannon of “Nurgle”



HoT1 – Plague of Rust, Transmutation of Lead
HoT2 – Searing Doom, Final Transmutation
HoT3 – Glean Magic, Bolt of Change
H1 – Gateway
H2 – Firestorm

Lesser Gift: Wand of Whimsy (1)
Regen Tokens: 4

Reign of Chaos (N): 7,4,7,8,5
Reign of Chaos (T): 11,3,9,6,6

Alarielle had punted my daemons down to the top of the last row of tables, where I discovered that my last game of the GT would be a chart-slapping, hatred-filled, dicefest between two daemonic rivals similarly down on their luck! We had both faired pretty poorly through the previous games – in fact none of the five daemon armies in attendance did very well, which makes sense given all the bad matchups and hard counters – but were able to put aside our commiserations for one last throwdown.








The daemonic hordes assemble!


As do the spell cards!

The opening rounds were fairly cagey, as I actually think that DoN + a skillcannon is yet another serious counter against my army, since his beasts (especially bolstered by hatred) can grind through any of my units, my magic has little purchase against him and in fact makes him better by increasing his regens to problematic levels immediately, and that skullcannon had to be dealt with so the grinder could make an appearance.



So screamers were shot out as wizards gained range and grindersauce + chariots cowered.



Eventually the grinder crested the hill, giving the skullcannon one shot before it was swarmed with screamers … and the not-Khorne artillery piece jammed!



And the cannon was dispatched. You can also see the grinder beset by beasts that it was making little headway against with its insta-gib claw, while the big horror block struggled for multiple rounds to dig through its own infestation of beasts.



Meanwhile on the other half of the field, a chariot had managed to get some legit pink fire shots across the plague blocks, turning off their regen long enough for the flamers to burn a few more down.



Around this time the chaos gods decided to get involved, with him calling down Slaanesh, who molested a couple wounds off of both burning chariots, while I awkwardly summoned Nurgle Himself. Papa tickled a screamer here and a horror there, but turned the (vast) bulk of his attention upon the Nurgle Prince. 9 S3 no armor hits turned the DP to liquid effluent (in a bad way), solving a problem I was struggling to answer myself.



And then my BSB gleaned away his BSB’s spell, amidst much giggling



Sadly while all this was happening the grinder was swamped with beasts and cuddled to death, leaving us to redress the lines sans big dudes going into Turn 5:



Thinking about it, I was pretty sure there were no more points for me to get, barring 25% on one of those plague blocks. So everything went into one of the ‘bearers units, as yet more beasts bounded into my general’s horrors (my general having tactically withdrawn since the last round of beasts).



This is more or less where we ended. The rear-charging furies were torn apart by exploding blue horrors, but the rest of the not-necessarily-blue horrors steadfasted like pros.

Victory Points: 1025 vs 1155

In other words, a draw I think we ended up playing five turns, as we were the last game still going, the hall was being dismantled and our table was set exactly where the rewards were supposed to be happening shortly.

--------

As always, Crossroads is a great event and I had decent fun, though I’d be lying if I said the matchups didn’t feel like counter after counter. I know Daemons of Tzeentch are a soft sub-build of a mediocre book, but I felt like I didn’t have much of a chance at victory in many of these matches. I kind of want to blame ETC for some of this, which allows a whole lot of filth through, as opposed to Swedish comp, which rewards a whole lot of variety … but I knew it was ETC going in, and that I’d be on the back pseudopod no matter the comp pack. I did manage my best painting score yet (not mindblowingly high but stronger than my Skaven and definitely my Ogres) and actually one of my best sports scores as well

Like I let slip earlier, Spring Crossroads 2015 is happening in September as usual, and I’m currently signed up. Odds are it’ll be a straight 9E event, unless the game changes so wildly that either our armies are entirely invalidated, it flat out has no place in competitive play, or the player base abandons it, in which case Crossroads will be an 8E legacy GT. And, judging by the huge shout in its favor, Swedish comp might just make an appearance

- Salvage

 Boss Salvage wrote:
In my experience, BotW elves (so most of them) vs DoT means I’m liking going to draw, unless it’s a heavily comped event and the BotWstar isn’t loaded with all the points, or I get very lucky. ETC is not heavy comp, so there was that. But Alarielle made the hard counter matchup extremely unpleasant – for those who don’t know (which was me until this game), on top of all her other bonuses (loads of spell options, can recast one a game, has a healing aura), she also automatically does something like D6 S4 hits to all daemons within 12” at the beginning of her magic phase. I’m playing MSU T3-4 daemons which need to encircle the BotWstar to kill it, staying about 12” away. And we’re playing a scenario where you get bonus points for being close to the center of the table at the end.

...

Meanwhile my flotilla of skysharks had done whatever it was they were doing on the flanks (killing eagles and reavers I’m guessing), and were cruising back in to surround the star and unleash ‘Death By A Thousand Dice’ upon it, while weathering the Everqueen’s hater aura.

Lol at "hater aura" . That does make for a really bad matchup, ugh! Looks like you had them down to very few models by the end, though, so a good showing even though the score didn't reflect / reward it.

Love the bat reps but that does look like it was a bit of a blender! I feel like daemons are a GW hallmark and very safe for usability in 9th edition, though, so here's hoping the army gets a little more teeth (or tentacles?) via rules revision in a few weeks