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A Few Games of 40K

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This has been a good couple of days for 40K.

Saturday

On Saturday, I braved the drive up to Germantown to help test drive MVB’s NoVApocalypse format (the drive up was surprisingly easy; the drive back considerably less so).

I was paired up with Dameon Green who was running his Thousand Sons. His list looked something like:

HQ
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch
Summoned Greater Daemon

Elites
Dreadnought – DCCWx2
Dreadnought – DCCWx2
Dreadnought – DCCWx2

Troops
Chaos Space Marines x5 – Aspiring Champion, Combi-melta, Melta
– Rhino
Chaos Space Marines x5 – Aspiring Champion, Combi-melta, Melta
– Rhino

Heavy Support
Defiler
Defiler
Obliterators x2

After some brief discussion about what he was bringing and the two lists I’d been considering, we decided I should play the following (the list I’d been considering last week):

HQ
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might

Troops
Bloodletters x8 – Fury
Bloodletters x8 – Fury

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne
Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne

So, basically, we were a pair of jerks running seven monstrous creatures and five close-combat walkers in a combined 3,000 points.

Game 1

Our first game was against Kevin Comer and David Gonzales.  Kevin was running a sharp looking Vostroyan First-born Imperial Guard list that was, basically, a lot of chimeras and three Leman Russ Demolishers.  David was running Dark Angels: terminators, predators, a dreadnought and some mechanized tactical marines.

There were two scenarios in play.  The first was to capture the three objectives running down the center of the board; only Dameon and Kevin’s units were able to do that.  Meanwhile, five of my units (both Bloodletters, both Flesh Hounds and one of the Princes) and five of David’s units (both Terminators, both Predators and the Dreadnought) produced Kill Points.

I had some odd scatters, which meant the game was mostly Dameon’s 1,500 points doing kind of an unreasonably good job defeating their 3,000 points (while my daemons popped in on the other side of the table).

Mid-game, my guys started getting more involved, and the tide started to turn.  Ultimately, we ended up tabling them (Kevin’s Lord Commissar wasn’t quite able to survive a fistfight with Dameon’s Greater Daemon).

This was a well-fought game, and our opponents were really great guys.

Game 2 

The second game of the day was considerably more intimidating: we were matched up against Joe O’Malley and Mark Aksel: Joe was running, basically, nothing but Blood Angel Rhino chassis and Mark was running Space Wolves.

Two scenarios, again: The first scenario was a tough one: non-vehicle models could “plant a flag” on one of four hills.  They only got one flag to plant per unit, and started accruing points for each round they remained on this hill after planting the flag.  Killing a unit that had planted a flag would produce the number of points that unit had generated -1.  The second scenario was controlling an objective in the center of the table.

I’m not kidding when I say they had a lot of armor on the table: Joe had eight ten Rhino chassis (three Predators, three Baal Predators and four Rhinos) and Mark had three six (three Razorbacks and three Vindicators); armor’s something I have trouble with.  Monstrous Creatures wreck armor, but it’s a poverty when a WS 10 Bloodthirster is hitting on 4’s (or 6’s).  Then, Chaos was fickle and sent me the wrong wave to start with.

I ended up camping out the Bloodletters in the ruins (not bunkers) near the objective and sending the Flesh Hounds into the parking lot.  The Bloodthirsters and Daemon Princes trickled in.

One of the Flesh Hound units was obliterated on the first turn; the second unit went after the Baals; trashing one and putting a serious hurt on the others.  One of the Bloodthirsters chewed his way through the Wolf Lords.  The Bloodletters did nothing, except hide in cover and wait to claim the objective.

Mark sent his Lone Wolves to plant flags and Joe had a Rhino Immobilize itself on a hill early on, so the squad riding in it planted their flag, as well.  Because of the unfortunate Daemonic Assault roll, we were never in a position to really drop flags. Because of our low number of units (actually, I wouldn’t say it was all that low, but theirs was so high), we wouldn’t have been able to sit around on the flags even if we’d been able to… so we conceded that scenario early on.

It looked like we might be able to pull off a tie, holding down the center objective, but an overly aggressive move with the Chaos Marines and their Rhinos exposed it to our opponents.  Even after six turns of what was a knock-down, drag-out fight, they were able to get enough models onto the objective to contest it.

Again, our opponents were great guys and put up a very tough, fun game.

It was a long day, but it was absolutely a really good day of gaming.

(Pictures are MVB‘s)

Tuesday

I met up with Austin to take a run at his newly-completed 23rd Necromundan Ash Waste Guard.

I’d realized, while waiting around for him to show up, that I hadn’t actually written a list for the day.  I dug through my bag, found one, and tweaked it a bit with the results of some lessons learned.  I ran:

HQ
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster

Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Instrument
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Instrument

Troops
Bloodletters x8 – Fury
Bloodletters x8 – Fury

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne
Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne
Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne

He ran something like:

HQ
Company Command Squad – Plasmagun x2, Lascannon
– Chimera – Heavy Flamer
Company Command Squad – Meltagun x2, Lascannon

Elites
Psyker Battle Squad x10
– Chimera

Troops
Infantry Platoon
– Command Squad – Flamer x2, Meltagun x2
– Infantry Squads x40 – Commissar, Power Weapon x3, Lascannon x3
Veteran Squad – Plasmagun x3, Powerfist
– Chimera

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Squad – Exerminator x1, Vanquisher x1
Leman Russ Squad – Battle Tank x1, Executioner x1
Colossus x1

The above is certainly not accurate; I’m pretty sure he had more Chimerae, but it’s the gist.

We rolled up Seize Ground (3 objectives) with Spearhead Deployment.

Didn’t get the wave I wanted, but Austin insisted that I take it anyway.

Bloodthirsters came in first, followed by the Daemon Princes (hoping to get cover from the ‘Thirsters) and a unit of Bloodcrushers to provide an icon for the rest of the army.

By the end of the first turn, I’d lost a Bloothirster and, if I recall correctly, one of the Daemon Princes.  Then, the Flesh Hounds and one of the units of Bloodletters came in while the monstrous creatures that survived the initial salvo advanced and started slaughtering anything they could get their axes into.

The surviving Bloodthirster was a little too successful and too frightening in slaughtering Guardsmen: his opponents ran away, leaving him to suck up all the fire from the blob of infantry.  He didn’t last… the squad that ran away rallied, however.  I’d gotten down to one Daemon Prince, who started banging on tanks and then the Colossus.

The Flesh Hounds charged into the blob of infantry: miraculously, enough survived to kill a bunch of Guardsmen and win combat. Later, the surviving Daemon Prince, and a squad of Bloodletters joined them to wrap the squad up.  The first squad of Bloodcrushers was extremely intimidating… but fell in combat to a very tough squad of Vostroyans.

The game ended on Turn 5: just in time for my Bloodletters to kill the last of his Infantry Platoon and consolidate onto the objective (and behind the Daemon Prince for a bit of cover) while the late-arriving Bloodcrushers ran into range to contest one, maybe (but probably not) both of the other objectives (neither of which were actually held at the time).  Had the game pushed into Turn 6, it’s a tough call to say whether or not he’d have been able to eliminate my Bloodletters (my guess is yes) but it’s unlikely he’d have been able to push off my Bloodcrushers… so it would probably have been a draw.

As always, a great game with Austin.

Hobby Status – 20100910

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It’s been a week and a half since I last posted…. not too much going on, ’round here.

I haven’t been able to keep up my soul-crushingly-slow-but-totally-reasonable 10 Clanrats/Skavenslaves per week pace; too much other stuff going on (four days out of town for Labor Day weekend don’t help, for example).  I’ve made peace with that, though.

I did varnish 10 more Slaves, however, which puts me at 40 painted Clanrats/Skavenlaves (which is just shy of 50% of where I need to be) and at one full Skavenslave block.

That’s a milestone.  So, I took some pictures!

Of course, I’m making it sound like I haven’t been doing hardly anything, which is verifiably untrue.  Between all the Skaven I painted last month (31 figures) and all the terrain I built (8 pieces), I clocked 71 painting points last month.  That means August was easily my most productive month, by quite a bit.  (I log all of this stuff, a subject that really deserves its own post, I suppose.)

So, really then: go me.

Other than that:

I’ve been playing a game a week in our 8th Edition “Learn the New System” League.  I’ve lost dang near every game.  This means I really need to go back and reread everything Rhellion has posted about his Skaven to figure out what he’s doing that I’m not (besides winning with his Skaven).

I’ll be heading up to Germantown (ick) tomorrow to help playtest the NoVApocalypse format.  I’m looking forward to it: should be both interesting and laid back.  Also, I haven’t played 40K since the Whiskey Challenge the night before the Open, so that’ll be good.  I’ll be rocking the Khornate Daemons. My list isn’t completely finalized, but I imagine it’ll be something extremely like:

MAXIMUM KHORNAGE – NoVApocalypse
Daemons of Khorne – 1,500 points

HQ
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might

Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Instrument
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Instrument

Troops
Bloodletters x8 – Fury
Bloodletters x8 – Fury

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury

I’ve got 24 points left over, so I’m sure I’ll find a use for them.  Or I could swap out the Bloodcrushers for Daemon Princes or something.  I dunno.  It’s tricky to do a 1,500 point list (which is why I like the format, I think). Not thinking too hard about the list, though.

I’ll be skipping out on the 8th Edition League tournament: this past weekend really kicked my butt and I’m already committed to the NoVApocalypse thing… so I’ve got to find a weekend off somewhere.

New Approach to Skaven

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It’s been a little bit since I last posted what I was running Skaven-wise.  This is, without a doubt, just as well… it can’t be terribly interesting to folks.  This is doubly true as week-to-week, I just make small changes here and there.

I’ve shifted my army a little more dramatically than usual, though, and figure it’d be nice to think out-loud about it.  This is a slight update to the list I ran last week.  So, here goes:

Lords
Warlord – General, Sword of Swift Slaying, Enchanted Shield, Foul Pendant, Poisoned Attacks
Grey Seer – Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Protection, Skalm

Heroes
Chieftain – BSB, Armor of Silvered Steel, Shield
Warlock Engineer – Lvl 2, Doomrocket, Warp Energy Condenser

Core
Clanrats x29 – Shields, Full Command, Poisoned Wind Mortar
Slaves x30 – Shields, Champion, Musician
Slaves x29 – Shields, Champion, Musician
Stormvermin x29 – Full Command, Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special
Gutter Runners x5 – Slings, Poisoned Attacks
Rat Ogres x6 – Champion
– Packmasters x4
Rat Ogres x6 – Champion
– Packmasters x4

Rare
Doomwheel
Plagueclaw Catapult
Warp-Lightning Cannon

So, what’s going on here? A few things:

For starters, I’m going very character-heavy. All of my dudes are pretty thoroughly kitted out.  I’ve never really done this.  We’ll have to see if this holds up over a couple of games.

  • The Warlord is kitted out to be somewhat hard to kill, with a 3+/5+, and should be relatively dangerous in combat with the ASF + Poisoned Attacks.  Last week, I ran him with the Ogre Blade and a Potion of Toughness: I think (I’m not caffeinated enough for the math) that he’ll be more dangerous with ASF (his I7 giving him rerolls against most things) and poison than with S6.  Also, the potion didn’t really seem to make a huge difference last week… and I needed points elsewhere.
  • Between Rhellion and Charlie hard-selling the Grey Seer, I’ve decided to try running him.  He was a champ last week, for sure.  He’s got the Dispel Scroll, because he’s the only guy with room for it, the 4+ Ward Save (because, at 240 points before items, he needs as good a save as he can get) and, because it seems prudent, Skalm.  This might be a mistake, and it’s certainly easy enough to move those 50 points somewhere else…. but it made a difference last week.  If I think of each wound on this sucker as being worth 80 points (1/3rd of his cost), it’s steal.
  • The BSB is no longer toting the Stormbanner.  I’ve moved that to the Stormvermin.  This lets me give him some magic armor to make him more survivable: a 2+/6+ has got to be more useful than a 4+/6+, you know?
  • Down to the one Engineer.  I could easily see myself dropping him to a Lvl 1… but for now I’m sticking with the Lvl 2.  I’m kind of stuck with his options, because they’re both too good not to take.

The inclusion of the Seer means I have to drop Something.  240 points don’t grow on trees.  So: I dropped a block of Clanrats.  I’m a little skeeved to only be running two blocks of significant troops (I don’t count Slaves as significant), but I’ve got to see how it works out before I decide I hate it.

Gutter Runners are in, they’ve been champs for me.  Just five dude but a whole lot of poisoned slingin’.

Rat Ogres are still there: I’ve bumped them up to 4 Packmasters each.  What’s that?  Only six Ogres, but 4 Packmasters?  I got this from the interview with Charlie.

The rule says “A pack consists of 1 Packmaster and 2 Rat Ogres.  Any number of Rat Ogres can be added to the unit.  Packmasters can be added, but no more than 1 per every 2 Rat Ogres.”  The 1:2 ratio applies to additional Packmasters, not total Packmasters (which is what I’d originally thought).  This is supported by the Skaven FAQ, which says:

Q. Can I take a unit consisting of 2 Rat Ogres and 2 Packmasters
when I pick an army? (p104)
A. Yes.

Anyway, I like this, as it makes it a little harder to eliminate Packmasters from the unit and, more importantly, makes the unit look better.  It looks lop-sided with just three Packmasters: two behind the middle Rat Ogre and then one hanging out to either side.

In terms of rares, I still love my Doomwheel, and the Cannon’s performed quite well for me.  The Catapult is back, as I’ve got 100 extra points and I’m giving it a second chance.  I could take a second cannon, but lack the model, or a third block of slaves, but painting another 30 slaves would probably kill me.  So, second chance.

Anyway, I’m going to get in a few games with this style of list and we’ll see how I feel about it in a couple of weeks.  This week sees the real kick-off of the IFL’s 8th Edition League, so there should be a lot of gaming.

Skaven List

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I’ve fiddled a bit with the list I ran on Tuesday, and I think I’ve got it in a state ready for Tuesday.

8th Test Army
Skaven – 2,500 points

Lords
Warlord (General) – Bonebreaker, Shield, Warlock-Augmented Weapon, (Heavy Armor w/ 4+ Ward save)*

Heroes
Chieftain (BSB) –  Shield, Storm Banner
Warlock Engineer – Lvl 2, Dispel Scroll, Warp-Energy Condenser
Warlock Engineer – Lvl 2, Doomrocket

Core
Clanrats x29 – Full Command, Shields
– Poisoned Wind Mortar
Clanrats x29 – Full Command, Shields
– Poisoned Wind Mortar
Clanrats x29 – Full Command, Shields
– Poisoned Wind Mortar
Night Runners x10 – Sling
Night Runners x10 – Sling
Stormvermin x30 – Full Command
Skavenslaves x20
Skavenslaves x20

Special
Rat Ogres x6 – Master-Bred, Packmaster x3
Rat Ogres x6 – Master-Bred, Packmaster x3

Rare
Doomwheel

* Whatever it’s called.

Some thoughts:

– If what I’ve heard about having to use non-hand weapons if you have them is true, shields are worthless on Stormvermin, as they must always use their halberds.  I think I’m at peace with that: their save w/o shield is the same as that of the clanrats with them.

– Part of me wants to take more Slaves, but I don’t see the points.  I’d have to cash in a block of Clanrats for them, which I don’t think would do me much good.

– Doomrocket’s back in.

– The Warlord’s kind of juiced up now: he’ll have a 3+/4+ save and will spit out ten S 5 attacks.  A bit pricey, though.  I could see dropping the WAW for something cheaper + Slaves, maybe.

Clan Moulder

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I worked up a Clan Moulder list a little while ago.  It’s not a great list, and I didn’t really think it was at the time.  Since then, I’ve tweaked it a good bit, and I’m pretty excited about trying it out.

Rats!  RAAAATS!
Skaven – 2250 points

Lords & Heroes
Throt the Unclean
Plague Priest – Lvl 1, Flail, Great Pox Rat
Plague Priest – Lvl 2, Flail, Poisoned Attacks, Great Pox Rat, Dispel Scroll
Plague Priest – Lvl 2, Flail, Poisoned Attacks, Great Pox Rat, Dispel Scroll

Core
Giant Rats x25 – Skweel Gnawtooth, Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x25 – Master Moulder, Shock Prod, Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x26 – Master Moulder, Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x25 – Master Moulder, Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x5 – Packmaster
Giant Rats x5 – Packmaster
Giant Rats x5 – Packmaster
Giant Rats x5 – Packmaster
Rat Ogres x2 – Master Moulder
Rat Ogres x2 – Master Moulder

Rare 
Hellpit Abomination – Warpstone Spikes
Hellpit Abomination – Warpstone Spikes

Each character goes into a big block of rats.

The Priests are there to add punch to the army.  Static 4 combat resolution is nice, but I think I need to make the units a bit more dangerous.  Plus, I need some amount of magic; with these guys I’ve got 5 Dispel Dice and two Scrolls, which isn’t bad.  I’m also spitting out 7 Casting Dice a turn.  They’re each on Pox Rats so they can keep up; I don’t think it’d be smart to drop the Movement on the bulk of the army down to 5 when one of the advantages of the rats is their speed.

I could accomplish the same thing with Warlock Engineers, but I feel like Plague is a more thematically relevant lore than Ruin.  Plus Engineers don’t contribute much to the punchiness of a unit and none of these units are going to be static, hang-back and shoot units.

Plague Censers are nice, but 1) they’re wholly inappropriate to the theme of the list and 2) are a dumb thing to put in a unit of Toughness 3, non-Pestilens models.

Frenzy could be a problem, but I think I can handle it with the small rat blocks.

I’ve got two Abominations.  Although I don’t think they’re exactly the win button some construe them to be, taking two of them isn’t the sort of thing polite people do.  I think I get a pass because of the theme, however.  They’ll take some fire off of the blocks of troops (or be spared fire because of the blocks of troops).

I’ve got 13 drops across over 150 models.  4 blocks of troops, 4 trash-droppy little units, 2 rank breakers and 2 big nasty mothers.

There’s a lot of room for tweaking here:

  • Drop Thrott.  Take three blocks of slaves to meet minimum Core requirements.  I don’t think he’s a very good character.  That said, when I put 60 slaves on the table, I’ve lost my theme.
  • Drop Poisoned Attacks on the Plague Priests.  If I do that, I can bump the Lvl 1 up to a Lvl 2.
  • Replace the Lvl 1 caster for a BSB.  This is something I’ll probably do after a few games.
  • Drop the blocks of 25 rats to blocks of 20.  25 rats really means 30 models (as 20 rats really means 24 models).  I’m more used to running blocks of 25 models than blocks of 30.  If I did this, I’d have a fifth big block of rats.
  • Rat Ogres?  Huh?  I’ve not been impressed with them so far.  They’re here for theme.  I expect these guys won’t stick around too long.  Currently, I’m assuming that with the blocks and the Abominations, they’ll probably live long enough to do something.
In terms of models:
  • I’ve got… three or four Thrott the Unclean models (2-3 of the old school ones, 1 of the new ones).
  • I’ve got Nurglitch, a Master Moulder (both on Pox Rats) and will proxy the third with the Bonebreaker (since I’m not sure I really want three Priests on Rats).
  • I need to glue 3 more Giant Rats to bases. Set on Rat Ogres.
  • I’ve got to take a look in my tubs to see what the deal is with Packmasters & Master Moulders: I’ve got 16 out and about (19 if I use the ones I’ve got as Musicians in my Slave units), but I’ll need a total of 24.  I’ve got more, but that might be pushing it.
  •  I’ll be picking up Skweel this week.
  • For the Abominations, I’ll be using the one I’ve converted (obviously) and my Screaming Bell for the second one (since I want to buy whatever kit they eventually put out for it).
So, just need buy Skweel and dig up/find/buy 5-8 Packmasters.

New Skaven Lists

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Going to be getting in a couple of games tomorrow; my first with the new rats.  Lists of numbers and powers tends to make my eyes roll back in my head, so I’m going to start off with a list that looks a lot like the list I ran with the old book, save for a few, small changes.

Ratputin Revised
Skaven – 2,250 points

Lords & Heroes
Warlord – General, Bonebreaker Rat Ogre, Shield of Distraction, Weeping Blade
Chieftain – BSB, Shield, Shroud of Dripping Death
Assassin – Warpforged Blade
Warlock Engineer – Lvl 2, Dispel Scroll x2

Core
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Shields, Poisoned Wind Mortar
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Shields, Poisoned Wind Mortar
Giant Rats x21 – Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x21 – Packmasters x4
Skavenslaves x20 – Musician, Shields
Skavenslaves x20 – Musician, Shields

Special
Gutter Runners x6 – Slings
Jezzails x9
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x9 – Champion, Poisoned Wind Mortar
Rat Ogres x3 – Champion, Packmaster

Rare
Doomwheel
Hellpit Abomination

This is my usual list, but with the Specials and Rares shaken up.  I’m not convinced that the Warp-Lightning Cannon is going to be all that amazing, now, and the Doomwheel and Abomination look like too much fun.  Gutter Runners are still there, as are the Jezzails (who I expect to be terrible, now).  Globadiers and Ogres are in there more to be tried out than anything else.

I’ve also just fiddled with some clan-specific lists.  I have no doubt that these are pretty horrible lists, but it’s fun to just think about them.  The Moulder list especially; I’d have to base a few more rats to pull it off (since it involves 111!) and probably have to track down a few more packmasters (I need 22!).

Clan Pestilens

Lords & Heroes
Lord Skrolk
Plague Priest – Lvl 2, Plague Furnace, Flail, Shadow Magnet Trinket
Plague Priest – Lvl 2, Great Pox Rat, Poisoned Attacks, Extra Hand Weapon, Dispel Scroll x2

Core
Plague Monks x35 – Full Command, Storm Banner
Plague Monks x30 – Full Command
Skavenslaves x20 – Musician, Shields
Skavenslaves x20 – Musician, Shields

Special
Plague Censer Bearers x6
Plague Censer Bearers x6
Plague Censer Bearers x6
Plague Censer Bearers x6

Rare
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult

I expect this is a terrible list.  Only two blocks of real troops?  And they’re Plague Monks?  Hopefully, the Shadow Magnet Trinket and Storm Banner help keep everyone alive long enough to start stabbing and biting.

Also, Skrolk is ridiculously costed.  Way, way, way too expensive.

Clan Moulder

Lords & Heroes
Throt the Unclean
Chieftain – BSB, Shield, Shroud of Dripping Death
Warlock Engineer – Lvl 1, Dispel Scroll x2

Core
Giant Rats x25 – Skweel Gnawtooth, Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x22 – Master Moulder, Packmasters x3
Giant Rats x22 – Master Moulder, Packmasters x3
Giant Rats x22 – Master Moulder, Packmasters x3
Giant Rats x5 – Packmaster
Giant Rats x5 – Packmaster
Giant Rats x5 – Packmaster
Giant Rats x5 – Packmaster

Special
Rat Ogres x4 – Champion, Master Moulder, Packmaster
Rat Ogres x4 – Champion, Master Moulder, Packmaster

Rare
Hellpit Abomination
Hellpit Abomination

This really could be a lot of fun.  A huge horde army: four blocks of 25+ models and four blocks of tiny, fast, maneuverable 6 models.  In the old book, I tried tiny blocks of giant rats to use as redirectors: they were fantastic at it, but I eventually went to large blocks of them because of restrictions from the Mainstay rule.  Now that that’s gone, I’m definitely going to load up on tiny little trash drops that cost 23 point a pop and can march block and charge redirect.

Rat Ogres, I’m not sure about.  I don’t know if blocks of two or three or four or what are the way to go.  I feel like two might be to small, four is too big, and three too light on Packmasters.  We’ll have to see.

Dragon Wars

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Dragon Wars was last Saturday; I had a good time and three good games.

It was also my last go-round with the old Skaven book.  From now on, I’ll be playing with the new armybook.

The list I ultimately ran:

Dragon Wars
2,000 Points – Skaven
Lords & Heroes
Warlord – General, Dragon, Heavy Armor, Cautious Shield, Ring of Darkness, Skavenbrew
Warlock Engineer – Accumulator, Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll, Storm Daemon
Warlock Engineer – Accumulator, Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll
Core 
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Slaves x20 – Musician
Slaves x20 – Musician
Night Runners x5 – Slings
Night Runners x5 – Slings
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Special
Gutter Runners x5 – Slings
Jezzails x9
Rare
Warp-Lightning Cannon
I dropped The Gouger when I remembered that, per tournament rules, Dragons ignore magic weapons.  I replaced it with Skavenbrew, which I unfortunately forgot to use in 2/3rds of my games.  I really, really hate when I do that.
Game 1
First game was against Ben “Jammin'” Jones’ Vampire Counts.  He ran something like:

Vampire with Ghoulkin on Zombie Dragon
Vampire on Hellsteed
Necromancer
Ghouls x~20
Ghouls x~20
Ghouls x~20
Ghouls x~20
Corpse Cart
Varghulf
Black Coach

The scenario involved woods catching fire, spreading that fire to nearby units, and blowing dragons away from them.

Events of notes include when the Vargulf charged my Giant Rats (or did I charge it?):  when I realized it only had 5 attacks (only!), I knew it wasn’t going to beat the Rats.  After three rounds of combat, it crumbled to wounds the Giant Rats were never able to inflict.  Similarly, the Black Coach slammed into block of Clanrats, it didn’t last very long either: disintegrating to static CR alone.
I lost this one, to scenario.  I managed to tag Ben’s dragon twice via shooting and Warp Lightning, which was good for two points (one point each).  He was able to get a charge in on my dragon and, over two rounds, was able to put two wounds on it; each of which were worth four points each.
Game 2
This game was against the nephew of one of the guys who plays at GPC regularly, Cameron, who was running High Elves.  He ran something like:

Prince on a Moon Dragon
Mage
Spearmen x30
Archers x15
Dragon Princes x6
White Lions x20
Swordmasters x20
Repeater Bolt Thrower

The scenario involved placing a large blast template beneath the path of a dragon’s flight, scattering it, and then scattering any units touched by the template.  It never came up.

This game was over as soon as it began.  I went first, did my usual thing.  He smacked his Dragon Princes into a block of Giant Rats that should have fled but, because they were so badass in the previous game, decided to stick around.  It’s even entirely possible that they’d have fled through the Warlord who was perilously close to them.  Point is: the Dragon Princes wrecked the rats, who fled, kicking off a test in the Ld 7 Warlord who, as close as he was to the edge of the table, didn’t need 3d6 to be off the table.

At that point, we put aside the Dragon Wars special rules and continued with the game because our game had lasted 30 minutes and we didn’t have anything better to do.  Despite losing it nearly as soon as I’d started it, it was still a good game.

Game 3

Was on the bottom table, against Bill Donovan, who was running the ringer army.  I think he was running two dragons to deliberately give up twice as many dragon points as everyone else.  It’s not an accident that Jay‘s second game was on the bottom table and that his third was on the first table.

At this point, I’ve forgotten most of what he ran.  He had two casters (a hero and a lord) on dragons (sun and moon), spearmen and a chariot… but past that, I can’t remember.

The scenario involved rolling a d3 on the top of each player’s turn.  If the roll corresponded to the relative facing between the two dragons on the table (facing, not facing, one facing and the other not), then an effect would happen (dragons would shoot a breath weapon out of their backside, dragons would immediately charge each other and dragons would charge the nearest unit, respectively).

Through the game I did pretty well, plinking away at his weaker Sun Dragon with shooting and Warp-Lightning, eventually dropping it.

Then, I rolled the effect that forced our two dragons to charge each other.  At this point, I’d wounded his Lord and had an uninjured Warlord atop my dragon.  More significantly, where we met was perfectly positioned to have a full unit of Clanrats charge his dragon in the flank, getting in on the action.  Combat was pretty brutal; my Skaven did quite well against the dragon, killing it in two turns.

At the end of the game (which happened immediately after my killing his Lord’s dragon), I’d killed or run everything he had off the table, save for 4-5 archers.

Dragon Wars

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I’m thinking a lot about Dragon Wars; a lot because I’m excited about showing off my Dragon, but mostly because I haven’t really played in any tournaments this year: there was the Baltimore Grand Tournament last November and the Fantasy Escalation League tournament in March(?) but that’s it.

I’m trying to figure out what I should take.  What you can take seems to be pretty lax: Dogs of War, Regiments of Renown and alternate lists seem to be okay.  The only requirement is that you have to take a dragon (with a generic option for those who can’t normally take dragons) and that a Lord has to ride on the dragon.

I’ve never played in a Dragon Wars before, but I understand the scenarios to be nutty, goofy and not what one expects.  Victory is entirely dependent on wounding/killing your opponent’s dragon.

Do I play it safe, and run a list very much like the list I normally run except with the Dragon?  Or do I go all in and put something crazy on the dragon?  For some reason, I’m not altogether interested in sticking a Grey Seer on the Dragon.  The Dragon needs to be stuck in combat, and that’s really not where a Grey Seer wants to be.

Dragon Wars #1
2,000 Points – Skaven

Lords & Heroes
Warlord – General, Dragon, Heavy Armor, Cautious Shield, The Gouger
Warlock Engineer – Accumulator, Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll, Storm Daemon
Warlock Engineer – Accumulator, Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll x2

Core 
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Slaves x20 – Musician
Slaves x20 – Musician
Night Runners x5 – Throwing Stars
Night Runners x5 – Throwing Stars
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2

Special
Gutter Runners x6 – Throwing Stars
Jezzails x5
Jezzails x5

Rare
Warp-Lightning Cannon

This is my “safe” list.  It’s the most like the list I currently run.

In fact, it’s pretty much my regular list, trading my Chieftan BSB with Storm Banner for the Dragon and a few other tweaks to make the numbers add up.  I could easily swap the second Engineer for the BSB (though not with Storm Banner, which I expect won’t be quite as useful, but maybe something like Banner of the Four Black Winds which costs a lot less and could be nearly as annoying with Dragons running around).  I could also swap out The Gouger for Skavenbrew, which could make things more fun: a Frenzied or Hateful (or Frenzied and Hateful) Dragon could be rad.

Dragon Wars #2
2,000 Points – Skaven
Lords & Heroes
Chieftain – General, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor, Cautious Shield
Deathmaster Snikch – Dragon
Core 
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Slaves x20 – Musician
Slaves x20 – Musician
Night Runners x5 – Throwing Stars
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Special
Gutter Runners x6 – Throwing Stars
Jezzails x5
Jezzails x5
Rare
Warp-Lightning Cannon
This is my goofy list.  Yes, it’s nearly identical to the list above, but it loses nearly all of the heroes (because Snikch consumes both a Lord and a Hero slot, the Dragon consumes a Hero slot, which makes that one model consume 835 points, a Lord slot and two Hero slots) and a lot of the redundancy I’m used to.  I have to take a Ld 6 hero to be the General (because Snikch is too busy stabbing mofos to lead an army), which rules out an Engineer (and any magic defense at all); I can’t see it being a Plague Priest or a Master Moulder.  I suppose I could take the Priest, buy him the Liber Bubonicus to make him a wizard just so I can take a Dispel Scroll… but that seems wasteful (and would cost 42 points I don’t know where to find).
I normally deploy my army in a pretty symmetrical fashion: the left flank looks a lot like the right flank.  Here, can’t really do that because I’m losing half my Night Runners and Giant Rats.
This is probably a bad build, but I’m tempted to take it because Snikch on a Dragon would be insane.  He’d be next to impossible to shoot at and would be a whirling deathmachine in close combat.  It’s also just a fun idea.
Dragon Wars #3
2,000 Points – Skaven
Lords & Heroes
Throt the Unclean – General
Warlock Engineer – Accumulator, Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll, Storm Daemon
Core 
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Clanrats x23 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Slaves x20 – Musician
Slaves x20 – Musician
Night Runners x5 – Throwing Stars
Night Runners x5 – Throwing Stars
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2

Special
Gutter Runners x6 – Throwing Stars
Jezzails x6
Jezzails x6
Rare
Warp-Lightning Cannon
This is another approach: still using a goofy character… but one that can actually be a General and uses up several hundred points less.  Throt instead of Snikch, which lets me have an actual General and many more points left over for other units.  Ugh.  But only two characters?

I think I’m probably going to run with that first list, since it gives me three characters.  Dumping three slots into a single model is painful.

Ratputin Returns

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I was so unimpressed with the way the Bubonic Court worked last time I played, I think I’m done with it for now.  It sacrifices too much of what it doesn’t have in the name of getting too little.  Plus, if I’m going to play in Dragon Wars, it’d be nice to refresh myself as to how the rest of the army I’ll be playing is supposed to work.

I’m playing a game against Harry on Saturday.  There’s a comp tournament next weekend, so he’s prepping for that.  My list unintentionally meets all of the comp tournament’s rules, save that I’m including a Dogs of War Giant, but he’s okay with that.  (I doubt it will make a difference, anyway).

Ratputin Returns
Skaven – 2,250 points

Lords & Heroes

  • Warlord – General, Heavy Armor, Cautious Shield, Foul Pendant
  • Chieftain – BSB, Heavy Armor, Storm Banner
  • Assassin – Weeping Blade
  • Warlock Engineer – Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll, Storm Daemon

Core

  • Clanrats x27 – Musician, Standard, Ratling Gun
  • Clanrats x26 – Musician, Standard, Ratling Gun
  • Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
  • Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
  • Night Runners x10 – Throwing Stars
  • Night Runners x10 – Throwing Stars
  • Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
  • Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
  • Slaves x20 – Musician
  • Slaves x20 – Musician

Special

  • Gutter Runners x7 – Poisoned Hand Weapons, Poisoned Throwing Stars
  • Gutter Runners x7 – Poisoned Hand Weapons, Poisoned Throwing Stars
  • Warplock Jezzails x7

Rare

  • Giant
  • Warp-Lightning Cannon

That’s 15 drops with 205 models.

I’m trying a number of different, new things out here.

  • The Giant, for one.  This started out with a decision to include some Ogre Ironguts but transformed into a “A Giant is more likely to suck down (and survive) all of my enemy’s fire,” decision.  Plus, it looks like it’ll be goofy and fun.
  • Gutter Runners.  I’m probably making a mistake here by taking so many of them, and by making them so expensive (those poisoned weapons increase their cost by 50%), but it’s something I’m not used to using.  I really need a way to deal with enemy warmachines, and these are it.  Initially one of these was a Tunneling Team, but after rereading the rules on that… no way.
  • Similarly, I’m taking slightly larger than usual Night Runner units of 10.  In a few months, I’ll be taking blocks of 25, but for now they skirmish and I’m used to units of 5.  I hope that, with groups of 10, they’ll be better at screening.  I’ve given them Throwing Stars to eat points: this Mainstay Unit stuff makes list construction difficult: if you can’t afford to buy another unit of Clanrats, you’re sort of stuck trying to find places to spend a few more points.  It will, hopefully, make them a bit more of a threat, though.
  • I’m only taking seven Jezzails for two reasons.  Seven is the magic number for these small units: it keeps them small (and cheap) while maximizing the number of models you need to kill before they break and run away (note that I don’t say “test to see if they break and run away”).  I’d take two units of them… but I only have ten Jezzails.  I hope we see plastic ones in a few months before I buy up to fourteen (but I’m not holding my breath).
  • As it turns out, I’ve always done The Cautious Shield wrong, thinking that if I give up my attacks, I can force a model to lose an attack.  What it actually does is automatically force a model to lose an attack and, if I give up all of my attacks, it forces them to lose two attacks.  That’s twice as useful!
  • I’m probably going to get my teeth kicked in on Magic.  (Heck, I’m probably going to get my teeth kicked in anyway, since I can’t outfight, outshoot, outmagic or outmaneuver any other army right now).  Just one caster, with one scroll probably isn’t going to be enough… but I want to play with the Assassin.

Plague Rats

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I should be playing WHFB this coming Tuesday.  Hopefully, timing work out such that I get not one, but two games in.

I’ve been working on painting some miniatures for the army, too.  I’m not quite up to powering through a full unit of 25 in a single week just yet, but it’s entirely appropriate to paint Nurglitch. He’s maybe halfway there, but I hope to find some time to finish him before Tuesday.

(Hastily taken with my phone this morning.)

This is the list I’m looking to use:

Rashputin Marches
Bubonic Court of Nurglitch – 2250 points

Lords & Heroes
  • Nurglitch – General
  • Plague Priest – BSB, Stormbanner
  • Festering Chantor – Dispel Scroll x2

Core

  • Plague Monks x26 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapon, War Banner
  • Plague Monks x26 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapon
  • Pusbags x20
  • Pusbags x20
Special 
  • Frothing Giant Rats x25
  • Frothing Giant Rats x25
  • Plague Censer Bearers x10
  • Plague Censer Bearers x10

Rare

  • Rat Spawn
  • Rat Spawn

We’ll see how it does.  Not many changes from before: pretty much just dropping the Lvl 2 upgrade on the Festering Chantor and using the points for more bodies.  I was pretty happy with how everything worked out in the last game, and I’m not sure that any of the other units would be that much more useful.

(God, doesn’t that image make you want to hurl?)