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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.

Did some gaming

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Taking evil_tendencies’ advice, I’ve not touched the Bloodcrushers in about a week.  They mock me from the hobby section of my desk, however.   Although I didn’t do much in the way of painting, I did get to play a couple of games.

vs. Tyranids

I got out to play a game with Casey on Saturday; I’d intended to do a pretty detailed battle report of the game… but hadn’t sufficiently prepared to do that.  So, instead, we just played the game and took some pictures.  Game was Seize Ground, Dawn of War deployment at 2,000 points.

It was a rough game: between Dawn of War and infiltrating Genestealers, he did a pretty good job of controlling where I could come in.  The first half of the game was spent with my Bloodcrushers tying up his Tyrant while I fed units to his Genestealers.

I won’t say that things turned around when my Bloodthirsters came in, but I certainly felt a lot better about myself.  The ‘Thirsters smacked into his squad of Zoanthropes and Warriors: the combat against his Zoanthropes  wasn’t amazing, but the one with his Warriors kind of was.  Unfortunately, after blowing through the Warriors, the thirster was stuck in the open, facing two Carnifex, a Trygon, Old One Eye and some Raveners.  

I fought for a draw, but it wasn’t in the cards.  I’m okay with that: the list I ran was my 2K Battle for the Cure list, which was tossed together with a “how few extra models will I have to paint” mindset and hasn’t been updated since.  That, and Casey’s a very strong player: there’s no shame in getting tabled by him.   (At least I hope not, ’cause it happens kind of often.)

vs. Chaos Space Marines

Last night, I got in a game with Mike U., someone I don’t think I’ve ever played before.  He was running Chaos Space Marines; the game Capture & Control, Spearhead deployment.  1,500 points.

This was an extremely close game, with a ton of back and forth.  We both had some really shockingly bad dice rolls that made the game look hopeless… only to have things start looking up when the other would have a horrible roll.

Fought it out to the end with a draw.  Had the game ended on Turn 5, I think I’d have won: he was out of Troops and I had some Bloodletters on an objective with one of his Rhinos ~3.5″ away.  It ran into Turn 6, though, and his Greater Daemon was able to wipe out all that remained of my Bloodletters (never mind his Rhino being able to move closer to the objective and contest).

All in all, a really good, close, fun game.

This Saturday, I should be getting in another couple of games: I’ll be running my Dark Angels against Kevin K’s beautiful Tau Empire army (I wish I could find pictures of it from Games Day Baltimore 2009’s Armies on Parade) which I’m going to try to do a detailed, photo-heavy battle report about.  Then I’ll be doing a NoVA Open practice game against Casey, which will see me trying out some new units I’ve never run before.  (Need to decide if I like them before I kill myself modelling them.)

‘Ard Boyz 2010 – Preliminaries

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So… I’d typed up a fairly lengthy post about ‘Ard Boyz at Game Vault on Sunday and, in a first, Blogger ate it.

I am… displeased.

Because I don’t have the energy to rewrite everything, I’ll summarize.  Fortunately, I typed up the army lists in notepad so I can salvage them, at least.

  • Got stomped, hard: Minor Loss, Minor Victory, Massacred.
  • Had a great time: three good games against three great opponents, despite the stomping.
  • Didn’t play any MEQs, which is a shame, as I’d have done better against them.
  • Did poorly against IG, Chaos Daemons.
  • Game Vault was, as always, great.
  • The guy running the tournament did a lousy job.

My list:

Deathwing ‘Ard Boyz
2,500 points

HQ
Belial – Sword of Silence, Storm Bolter
Grey Knight Grandmaster – Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter, Psychic Hood, Ungents of Warding

Elites
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Thunder Hammer, Heavy Flamer
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, Assault Cannon

Troops
Deathwing Terminator Command Squad x5 – Apothecary, Standard, Lightning Claws x3, Thunder Hammer x1, Chainfist,  Heavy Flamer
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, Assault Cannon
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, Assault Cannon

Game 1:
Got a Minor Loss against Hunter’s Imperial Guard; four models left on the table, contesting three objectives.

HQ
Company Command Squad x5 – Straken, Meltagun x3, Medic
– Chimera
Company Command Squad x5 – Plasmagun x3, Bolt Pistol x1, Medic
– Chimera

Elite
Marbo
Stormtroopers x7 – Meltagun x2

Troops
Veterans x10 – Grenade Launchers x3, Autocannon x1
– Chimera
Veterans x10 – Meltagun x3
– Chimera
Veterans x10 – Plasmagun x1, Flamer x1, Grenade Launcher x1
– Chimera
Veterans x10 – Flamer x1

Fast Attack
Hellhounds x2
Hellhounds x2 – Multimelta x1
Vendetta

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Demolisher- Lascannon, Plasma Cannon Sponsons
Leman Russ Demolisher- Lascannon, Plasma Cannon Sponsons
Leman Russ Demolisher- Lascannon, Multimelta Sponsons

Game 2:
I pulled out a Minor Victory against Beau’s Imperial Guard. It’d have been a Major Victory had my ninth squad come in before we ran out of time.

HQ
Company Command Squad x5 – Straken, Medic, Regimental Standard, Voxcaster
– Chimera
Commissar Yarrick

Elite
Stormtroopers x10 – Flamer x1, Grenade Launcher x1, Plasma Pistol
Stormtroopers x10 – Flamer x1, Grenade Launcher x1, Plasma Pistol

Troops
Infantry Platoon
– Command Squad x10 – Meltagun x3, Voxcaster
– Infantry Squad x10 – Flamer x1, Grenade Launcher x1, Plasma Pistol
– Infantry Squad x10 – Flamer x1, Grenade Launcher x1, Plasma Pistol
– Infantry Squad x10 – Commissar, Power Weapon, Voxcaster
– Infantry Squad x10 – Commissar, Power Weapon
– Infantry Squad x10 – Commissar, Power Weapon
– Infantry Squad x10 – Commissar, Power Weapon
– Special Weapons Squad x10 – Grenade Launcher x1, Plasmagun x2
Veteran Squad x10 – Heavy Bolter, Plasmagun x3, Voxcaster
– Chimera
Veteran Squad x10 – Meltagun x3, Plasma Pistol, Voxcaster
– Chimera
Veteran Squad x10 – Flamer x3, Grenade Launcher x2, Plasma Pistol, Voxcaster
– Chimera

Fast Attack
Hellhound x1

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Battle Tank – Lascannon
Leman Russ Battle Tank – Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Leman Russ Demolisher – Lascannon, Multi-melta Sponsons

Game 3:
Dan’s Chaos Daemons Massacred me.

HQ
Fateweaver
Bloodthirster – Blessings, Death Strike, Unholy Might

Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Musician
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Musician
Flamers x5 – Bolt

Troops
Bloodletters x20 – Icon, Musician
Horrors x5 – Bolt, Changeling
Horrors x5 – Bolt
Horrors x5 – Bolt

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt, Daemonic Gaze, Unholy Might
Daemon Prince – Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt, Daemonic Gaze, Unholy Might
Daemon Prince – Mark of Slaanesh, Flight, Iron Hide, Unholy Might, Pavane

‘Ard Boyz Practice Game

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I finished assembling the last 99.99% of the Deathwing Terminators I need for this weekend’s ‘Ard Boyz.  All I need at this point, really, is a hooded head from the Veterans sprue for a sergeant and I can call it done.  (And, for the purposes of ‘Ard Boyz, that’s not a biggie.)

That’s it.  All 47 models I’ll be using at ‘Ard Boyz.

I stopped by Game Parlor Woodbridge yesterday to drop off the Sternguard Veterans and, while I was in town, get in a couple of games with folks with whom I don’t normally get to game.  Since it’s on my mind (and sever other folks’ minds), I brought the Deathwing.

Unfortunately, instead of getting in the two, maybe three, games, it was just the one.  I like chit-chatting, and taking it easy… but I really should start working on getting games to move along at a better clip: I think it’d improve my performance at tournaments and (more importantly) help ensure I get to play more games outside of tournaments.

I played against Steve Schweitzer’s Salamanders.  His list (from memory) was something very much like this:

HQ
Vulkan
Librarian – Terminator Armor, Storm Shield, Avenger, Null Zone

Elites
Assault Terminators x9 – Thunder Hammer / Storm Shield x9
– Land Raider Crusader – Multi-melta, Storm Bolter
Sternguard Veterans x10 – Heavy Flamer, Combi-Flamer x4, Meltagun, Combi-Melta x4
– Drop Pod
Sternguard Veterans x10 – Heavy Flamer, Combi-Flamer x4, Meltagun, Combi-Melta x4
– Drop Pod

Troops
Scout Squad x10 – Telion, Sniper Rifle x8, Heavy Bolter
Tactical Squad x10 – Flamer, Multi-melta, Powerfist
– Drop Pod
Tactical Squad x10 – Meltagun, Multi-melta, Powerfist
– Drop Pod

Heavy Support
Devastator Squad x5 – Plasma Cannon x2, Lascannon x1
Thunderfire Cannon

I’m pretty confident that that list is off, since it prices out to 2580.  Not sure what I’m remembering that wasn’t there, though.  My confidence in the loadouts of the Tactical squads is particularly low.

I was running the list I talked about here.

Since it was ‘Ard Boyz practice, we randomly rolled for a mission from the list of scenarios, and ended up with #3: “Kill Da Fast Ones.”  Basically, Annihilation with Pitched Battle deployment, save that models that can move > 6″ in a round are worth 3KP and HQs are worth 2KP.

The game was incredibly brutal.

His Assault Terminators ate two and a half squads of Deathwing Terminators: taking hardly any casualties until the Deathwing Command Squad started puking up Lighting Claw wounds that allowed probability to start catching up and getting through the Storm Shields.

I made a huge mistake and put Belial (and five Terminators) up against Vulkan (and five Sternguard).  Poor rolling didn’t help, but they didn’t really stand a chance against Vulkan, who took damn near everything threw at him.  Only finally, in the next-to-last round of the game, was the Grandmaster able to get a single wound through Vulkan’s Kesare’s Mantle.  It was a Force Weapon, though, so thankfully that’s all I needed.  That’s good, because he died at the same time.

I made another mistake at the end and assaulted a tactical squad with two terminators in the last round of the game.  I didn’t have to.  They couldn’t have killed the whole squad.  Instead, they were wiped out and gave up another KP.

I had two mishaps: one was a lost in the Warp, the other allowed him to place the squad.  (The remnants of whom I just mentioned crashing against a Tactical Squad.)  When your entire army is Deep Striking, you must make peace with mishaps… but it’s a lot easier to swallow when the squad mishapping only costs ~160 points and not ~250.  Could have been worse, though.

The Grandmaster was a champ.  He killed Vulkan, and shut down half of the Librarian’s psychic powers.  A Strength 6 Force Weapon with (4 base + 1 charging + 1 Deathwing Company Standard) 6 attacks ain’t no joke, son, either.  I need to decide if I think I can get away with just using my Librarian model, or if someone’s going to give me grief that he’s not a Grey Knight on Sunday.

At the end of the game, I had 2 models left on the table.  Two models, one in each squad.  I gave up 11KP and took 13KP.  It was a brutal, bloody fight: excellent.

In terms of results, I copped a Minor Victory, with probably +2 Battle Points (I’m 99% sure I killed 1,000 points worth of his guys and I had a scoring unit in his deployment zone).  He got +3 Battle Points (he killed 2,000 points of my guys and he had some scoring units in my deployment zone).

A really, really good game.

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.

Ratputin Triumphant

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The game on Saturday happened, as planned.  As cramped as my schedule’s been, lately, I consider that a victory.

Harry ran High Elves, with a list that was something like:
Lords & Heroes
  • Noble – General, Great Eagle, Reaver Bow
  • Noble – BSB, Elven Steed, Battle Banner
  • Mage – Dispel Scroll, Dispel Scroll (Lore of Fire)
  • Mage – Elven Steed, Silver Wand, Starwood Staff (Lore of Death)
Core
  • Archers x10
  • Archers x10
Special
  • Dragon Princes x5 – Full Command
  • Dragon Princes x5 – Full Command
  • Ellyrian Reavers x5 – Full Command
  • Lion Chariot of Chrace
  • Phoenix Guard x12 – Full Command
Rare
  • Great Eagle
  • Repeater Bolt Thrower
  • Repeater Bolt Thrower
I ran the list I discussed here.
It was a full-on battle.  Very, very close with the dice deciding a lot of things.  It was a really good game.

Some notes:

  • The battlefield was different than what I’m used to seeing.  This was great.  I’d just been complaining with some other folks on RPG.net about how WHFB battlefields always look pretty much exactly the same: Forests to the right and left, halfway between deployment zones with one to two hills along the back edge of each deployment zone (for bolt throwers, etc).  Harry started dropping hills in the middle of the board for fear of the Warp-Lightning Cannon.  I put forests in each deployment zone, hoping I could scout my Gutter Runners.

  • He lost his mages immediately.  On his first turn, his scroll caddy miscast with double 1’s (kill the Mage).  The other Mage died on my second turn: he’d been in a unit of Dragon Princes… which had lost a member to Storm Daemon, allowing the Warp-Lightning Cannon to snipe him.  To say that this helped is to wildly understate.
  • The Throwing Stars on my Night Runners didn’t really do much for me, though it did have a strong psychological impact on my opponent.  He seemed unreasonably concerned that he was going to get shot to pieces; I’m not sure why.  Yes, most of my army had shooting, but so much of it was at a negligible range… and it’s not like it was two blocks of archers and two bolt throwers.
  • I did like the larger unit of Night Runners, though.  They were more effective at screening, and tied things up pretty well.  Shame they’ll be losing Skirmish in a few months.
  • The Gutter Runners did quite nicely.  They locked down two flanks effectively and, on springing into combat, did me proud.  They were unable to help with warmachines, though.  I probably should try a Tunneling Team, after all.
  • I still like the Warlord with the Cautious Shield and the +5 Ward Save.  He’s not a death machine, but he helps keep the unit around very effectively, and is about as hard to kill as I can manage.
  • The Assassin wasn’t able to do much of anything, but that’s because Harry moved his general halfway across the table.  A flying general is handy to have.  I’d probably be better off with two Warlock Engineers, though, if only to provide Dispel Dice and Scrolls.
  • Ratling Guns didn’t get to shoot once.  I don’t expect them to, any more.  They’re another target, though, and are a threat that must be dealt with, which protects my other units.
  • Likewise, the Giant.  He didn’t get the chance to do anything except eat two rounds of shooting… which is pretty much what I thought he’d do.  At 200 points, I probably should have higher expectations, I think.  Maybe next time, I’ll try Ironguts or something.
  • The Jezzails kicked ass.  They deployed behind the hills, in the back corner, which meant they were safe from enemy fire (so the only thing that would chase them off the table would be misfires).  They still had a clear line of sight to the middle of the field and, if anything crossed over the hill (which happened several times), they were able to unload on it at short range.
  • The Warp-Lightning Cannon did quite well; threatening the heck out of most of his units.  It paid for itself in frying the Mage.  At one point, it shot down the flank of the unit of Dragon Princes that contained the BSB.  At S10.  I rolled a 1 to wound the BSB, but incinerated the rest of the unit.  That was pretty close, there.
  • The MVPs for the game, I think, were the Globadiers.  Small enough that he didn’t want to waste anything on them, those two 20 point units were able to kill hundreds of points of Dragon Princes, as well as opening the door to put down to enemy characters.  They were fantastic.

At the end of the game, he had:

  • General (fleeing)
  • BSB
  • One full unit of Archers
  • 2 Bolt Throwers

I had:

  • Nearly full block of Clanrats (with General)
  • Nearly full block of Slaves
  • Nearly full heap of Jezzails
  • Warp-Lightning Cannon
  • Half a unit of Gutter Runners
  • 1 Globadier

One quarter was contested, one empty, two mine.  I’d captured a banner, as well.  Ultimately, I won by over 800 points, but it could have very easily been a defeat had his Mages not been fried.

The (Bubonic) Court Is in Session

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Only got one game in with the Bubonic Court last night, but it was a pretty good one.
We ended up bumping things up to 2250 because of my concerns that, after dropping 575 for Nurglitch, there wouldn’t be enough left over to make a viable army; I think I was probably right.
What I ran:
An Itching, Burning Sensation
Bubonic Court of Nurglitch – 2,250 points
Lords & Heroes
  • Plague Lord Nurglitch
  • Plague Priest – BSB, Storm Banner
  • Festering Chantor – Lvl 2 Upgrade, Plague Censer, Dispell Scroll x2
Core
  • Plague Monks x24 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapon, War Banner
  • Plague Monks x24 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapon
  • Pusbags x20 – Musician
  • Pusbags x20 – Musician
Special
  • Frothing Giant Rats x25
  • Frothing Giant Rats x25
  • Plague Censer Bearers x10
  • Plague Censer Bearers x10
Rare
  • Rat Spawn
  • Rat Spawn
What Mike ran:
Khainite – First Cut
Dark Elves – 2,250 points
Lords & Heroes
  • Death Hag – General, Cauldron of Blood
  • Master – BSB, Heavy Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Dark Steed, Ring of Hotek, Crimson Death
  • Dark Elf Assassin – Extra Hand Weapon, Manbane, Rune of Khaine
  • Dark Elf Sorceress – Level 2, Dispel Scroll, Darkstar Cloak, Dark Steed
  • Dark Elf Sorceress – Level 2, Dispel Scroll x 2
Core
  • Crossbowmen x10 – Shields
  • Dark Riders x5 – Musician, Repeater Crossbows
  • Dark Riders x5 – Musician, Repeater Crossbows
  • Harpies x5
  • Harpies x5
Special
  • Cold One Chariot
  • Har Ganeth Executioners x16 – Standard, Musician
  • Witch Elves of Khaine x20 – Standard, Musician
Rare
  • Repeater Bolt Thrower
  • Repeater Bolt Thrower
  • War Hydra
I truly did start the game expecting to be wiped off the table in half an hour… in the end, though, the game had a lot of back-and-forth and was pretty close. We had to call the game at the end of the fifth turn due to the store closing, but I think I had a pretty good shot of winning had the game gone on to the sixth turn.
That said, there were three things that made the game as close as it was:
  1. Mike’s list. The list he ran was different from his usual list; including units he’d never really run before and leaving out units he’s come to rely on. He wasn’t running a deliberately bad list, but it was something new and not particularly optimized.
  2. The winds of magic hating him. Eternally hating him. His casters miscast every. single. time.
  3. His assassin was unable to drop Nurglitch. Eight hits became two wounds, neither of which were able to penetrate Nurglitch’s foul misasma of funk.
That’s not to say I played a perfect game. Far from it. I dropped the ball in a number of places.
  • I did an execrable job screening my Frenzied units (nearly all of them) with my non-Frenzied units (Pusbags). I didn’t. Instead, I deployed them the way I normally deploy my Skavenslaves: in a fat block waiting to either catch an enemy unit in the flank or flee from a charge, setting up a flank charge for another unit. What I should have done is stretched them out in two ranks of 10 Pusbags each and screened my Plague Monks from charging off.
  • Casting wasn’t great. Although I didn’t roll a bunch of 1’s, Nurglitch lost Plague to an excellent casting roll turned into a miscast by the Ring of Hotek. From that point on, I didn’t have much ability to get off Pestilent Breath due to range and dispell dice and I never really wanted to cast Death Frenzy. In an army that will never lose Frenzy, it looks very useful but it’s absolutely a death sentence.
  • This also means that Warpstone Tokens weren’t particularly useful, and it also means the Level 2 Upgrade for the Festering Chantor was a complete waste.
  • I consistently forgot that Giant Rats are M 6 and not M 5. At 12″ charge distance is very different from a 10″ charge distance. I don’t know if that would have helped (I’m sure I would have caught Mike’s Dark Riders with them) or hurt (I’m not sure that having them tied up in combat and not soaking up Bolt Thrower fire would have been a good thing), but it’s a fundamentally dumb thing to forget.
  • I also consistently forgot that I had the War Banner. +1 CR matters, damnit!
The army was well outside of my comfort zone, and played very, very differently than what I’m used to. That’s fun. It didn’t hurt that there were a number of things worked pretty well for me, either.
  • Fewer units meant that each real block of rank & file had at least one character in it. One unit of Plague Monks had, for its fronk rank, Nurglitch, a Plague Deacon, a standard bearer, and a Festering Chantor. The other had a Plague Priest and a Plague Deacon up front. That added both a leadership boost that Skaven really love to have and a great deal extra punch, which the Plague Monks really need.
  • Nurglitch is a big, tough, bastard. I don’t know that he’s worth nearly 600 points, but he threw out a number of attacks that I’m simply not used to, had an extremely high toughness and a ton of wounds. Statistically, he should be able to survive the Assassin he saw last night (but just barely): the Assassin threw out 8 attacks with Manbane (4 base attacks, extra hand weapon, bonus from the Cauldron of Blood, and 2 attacks from Rune of Khaine), 7 of which should hit, 4.6 of which should wound, only three of which should get through Nurglitch’s 5+ Ward Save.
  • Having some hard-hitting characters in the units, plus Frenzy never going away, plus the regular Skaven static combat resolution helped a lot.
  • The Rat Things did quite well. Stubborn 10 is another thing I’m not used to. Their strength could be higher, I feel, but they seemed to do quite well tying up units.
All in all, it was a fun game that was full of back-and-forth, something I’ve found lacking in WHFB. I’m going to fiddle with my list (and paint up Nurglitch) and try to fit in another game or two with the Court.