8th Ed. 2500 pts tournament summary

[Jorgta]

Hi! I went to a 5 game tournament here in Norway and I thought could share some experiences.

This is the list I took:

Slann w/ Lore of Shadows
- Becalming cogitation
- Higher state
- Focus of mystery
- Focused Ruminition
- Cupped hands
- Plaque of protection
- Standard of discipline

Priest on ancient stegadon w/engine
- Lvl 2
- Dispel scroll
- Dawnstone (reroll armour save)

30 Saurus w/spears and full command
40 skinks w/ javelins and full command
10 skirmisher skinks w/blowpipes
10 skirmisher skinks w/blowpipes

5 Cold one riders w/full command and flaming banner
10 Chameleon skinks

Ancient stegadon
Salamander
Salamander

If I had the the time (and money) I would probably changed the unit of cold ones for 2 krox in the skink unit and a extra chameleon unit.
The basic plan for the list was to make the enemy charge my big units (skinks or saurus) then use lore of shadow to level the playing field and then charge in a stegadon or cold ones in the flank. The big skink unit was supposed to just move up to something, unleash 20 poisened javelins, then the enemy unit would have to charge and weather another 20 shots from stand-and shoot or just stand there and get shot every round.

Game 1 - Vampire counts. Scenario Battle line
This guy was very nice and had even less experience with 8th ed than me. (I had played 2 games, he only one.) So we took our time and played fairly laidback. He had a vamp lord tooled up for magic with Master of the black arts and Helm of commandment, an etheral vamp, a huge hord of skeletons (50 or so) a grave guard unit with wight king BSB (no regen). I managed to take out his horde with the skinks and the engine and a Vargulf with the Pit of shdes. I didn't manage to crack his Grave guard nut though and after 4 turns we had to call it and tallied up a draw.

Game 2 - Skaven. Scenario: Meeting engagement.
Nice guy again, he had a lot of rats, couple of engineers, grey seer on bell, plague priest on furnace and a doomwheel. I have only played against Skaven once and that was in 7th ed. so I'm not quite up do date on every Skaven trick. This proved quite fatal when he innocently announced he would throw Skitterleap on turn one. I suspected some shenaningans but would have to use a dispel scroll to stop it. I didn't and a skittering leap later I suddenly had a stinking rat engineer sandwiched in between my engine and toad. In the shooting phase the engineer whipped out something called a "brass orb" and suddenly my lovely toad was no more! Not the best of starts but the priest did a good job filling in. Even so it was a struggle after that turn but I managed to hold off a massacre at least.

 

[Jorgta]

Game 3 - Dark elves. Scenario: Blood and glory
This scenario was hard enough with me only having a fortitude of 6, but they added three capture markers and each one claimed counted +1 fortitude for you and -1 for the opposing army. In theory he could capture all three markes and I would lose. He had a fairly nasty list with 2 hydras, a lvl 4 sorceress, a lvl 2, couple of chariots, lots of spearmen and 2 units of crossbows. I managed to get my cold ones with the flaming banner opposite one of his hydras by not scouting the chameleons. The salamanders burned away spearmen like there where no tomorrow. Then his lvl 2 with death used a power scroll to cast a spell forcing my skink horde to take str tests. This proved a bit much for the poor fellows and they panicked. His death wizard died on the miscast though so it wasn't a complete loss. The it was my turn again I thought things looked very rosy when I had one hydra locked down with the cold ones and then managed to pit of shades the other. So it was a big surprise when my opppnent suddenly said: " You actually lost last turn." Up until the we hadn't really bothered counting fortitude after each game turn, but after losing a good portion of his army he suddenly remembered this and claimed that since my skink horde were fleeing last turn, and he captured two markers he had won on the turn before. I was very disappointed, but couldn't really argue with him. So I lost 20-0. Of course fleeing units with banner doesnt actually count against your fortitude which he was nice enough to inform me the day after. He apologised and we changed the score to a draw.

Game 4 - Dwarves. Scenario Battle line
I had a huge hangover from the night before in this game, so I didn't care so much that my opponent showed up late. He was a friendly guy from Poland. I really struggled with this match, his two grudge throwers kept on hitting an ended up killing both my Ancient stegadons, he generated an obscene amount of dispel dice and he kept a lid on my magic. he also had better fighting units than I had and I forgot about the chameleons on the first turn. He ended up winning quite big, which was well deserved.

 

[Jorgta]

Game 5 - High elves. Scenario: Battle line
The last game, also against a really nice guy. He had a Archmage with lore of life and Book of Hoeth, a lvl 2 w/ death, a big unit of dragon princes, 2 units of spearmen, a unit of phoenix guard, a repeater bolt thower 2 units of archers and 3 eagles. On my first turn i managed to cast spell with IF and I used my Cupped hands an gave the miscast to the archmage. He lost 3 magic levels and all his spells... except Dwellers below. He used Dwellers on my Saurus unit, and with the book theres not much you can do. Still, my salamanders killed a lot of spearmen (after I learned that dragon princes really don't care much about fire magic), the cold ones managed to take out his ranged units, the chameleons went berserk and took out all the eagles and whittled away a lot of elves. He was sneaky enough to outflank me with his dragon princes though and they were in a position to charge down my entire army in the flank. He made a funny face when i declared a charge with my Slann against them. I thougt that he really couldn't hurt me since I was ethereal and with BSB and charge we would tie, then I could charge him in the rear with my Steg. It would have worked if the toad had managed to roll 5 or more on the charge roll. But he made up for in the magic phase when he first reduced the I of the princes to 3, then pit of shaded them. They actually panicked!
I also took out his spearmen units with the engine, giving me a convincing win.

Afterthoughts
I really like the lore of shadow! It fits my army because I rely on multiple combats and it is easier to throw a hex on one enemy unit than to buff several of my own units. The synergy with the Salamanders is totally awesome too as you use The withering to reduce one units toughness the hammer that unit with both salamanders and blowpipes. The pit of shades is very good for taking out nasty monsters who usually has a lot of str but little I.
The Salamanders are very good of course, and at 75 points they are a must. The cold ones will probably be replaced with a couple of krox. They didn't do all that much and gave up a lot of points when they died. Flaming attacks are nice though. Chameleon skinks rock, I would like one more unit. The big Saurus unit was really my anchor I the were always reliable and rarely gave up their points.

So thats it. With 2 draws, 2 losses and a win I didn't get very much battle points. But a nice score on painting helped and I placed somewhere a little over the middle. More importently though, i got in 5 good games and had a real good time.

 

[Elmquasmash]

Sounds like an awesome time! I'm glad the DE player was a good sport and realized that you guys had a draw in your game. Its good that you got 5 games in as well! Tripled your experience in the new edition! And what units would you have to say worked out the best to your advantage and what ones werent too effective?

 

[Scalenex]

Game 3 - Dark elves. Scenario: Blood and glory
This scenario was hard enough with me only having a fortitude of 6, but they added three capture markers and each one claimed counted +1 fortitude for you and -1 for the opposing army. In theory he could capture all three markes and I would lose. He had a fairly nasty list with 2 hydras, a lvl 4 sorceress, a lvl 2, couple of chariots, lots of spearmen and 2 units of crossbows. I managed to get my cold ones with the flaming banner opposite one of his hydras by not scouting the chameleons. The salamanders burned away spearmen like there where no tomorrow. Then his lvl 2 with death used a power scroll to cast a spell forcing my skink horde to take str tests. This proved a bit much for the poor fellows and they panicked. His death wizard died on the miscast though so it wasn't a complete loss. The it was my turn again I thought things looked very rosy when I had one hydra locked down with the cold ones and then managed to pit of shades the other. So it was a big surprise when my opppnent suddenly said: " You actually lost last turn." Up until the we hadn't really bothered counting fortitude after each game turn, but after losing a good portion of his army he suddenly remembered this and claimed that since my skink horde were fleeing last turn, and he captured two markers he had won on the turn before. I was very disappointed, but couldn't really argue with him. So I lost 20-0. Of course fleeing units with banner doesnt actually count against your fortitude which he was nice enough to inform me the day after. He apologised and we changed the score to a draw.

Game 4 - Dwarves. Scenario Battle line
I had a huge hangover from the night before in this game, so I didn't care so much that my opponent showed up late. He was a friendly guy from Poland. I really struggled with this match, his two grudge throwers kept on hitting an ended up killing both my Ancient stegadons, he generated an obscene amount of dispel dice and he kept a lid on my magic. he also had better fighting units than I had and I forgot about the chameleons on the first turn. He ended up winning quite big, which was well deserved.

Ummm, doesn't panicking troops not count for breakingpoints because you have to lose the standard to lose the point?