it's really discouraging to see you just write off some armies. I understand some armies are more powerful, especially when you intentionally bring suboptimal lists, but some of us don't get to play hundreds of games of 8th and really enjoy the insight you provide. if you honestly don't feel like there's anything to say in regards to your defeat at the hands of some armies that's understandable, but it seems like that probably isn't the case. while nurgle armies are tough, they certainly aren't unbeatable. losing that many models right off the bat is obviously unfortunate, but it doesn't mean theres nothing to be learned from the rest of the game, at least not for someone like me. perhaps its selfish of me to ask you do more work on top of the tremendous effort you're already putting in, but I was actually fairly excited when I saw you playing a competitive nurgle list and was quite disappointed when you didn't give your usual insight. maybe just a small blurb about how the sides lined up? even that I find to be very interesting, and the work required wouldn't be as intensive as a full write up. either way, as always been loving your write ups. as someone who doesn't get to play very often its nice to be able to read regular battle reports all in one place.
I hear ya, and I know what you mean. There are just those games where you run the math and realize early on that there is no hope at all unless your opponent throws the game (and that's something nobody wants). I can't wait to get my entire army painted to a photo-worthy level so I could just post some pics in cases like this, but that's going to be a while. Here, let me see if I can give some insight as to what happened. I already covered the deployment in the main report, so here's a little of what happened: Early On Like I said, he rolled his first winds of magic roll and got Khorne's Wrath on several units, rolling a hit with the artillery die on each one. That was special. This left my left flank incredibly weak and open to beasts and a PB unit to begin encircling me. I did get to shoot down the Furies on my left with my skirmishers. That was nice. On the right, I advanced my Rippers between some buildings and faced them back into the center of the table so they could cover the advance of his soulgrinder - the unit they had hit with the toad. Instead, his soulgrinder pulled a fabulous charge and hit them. These two units were engaged for 3-4 rounds of combat. I needed 5's to hit him and 6's to wound him, after which his ward (and armor) kicked in. I lost my Frenzy on the first round of combat since then I was down to a total of 9 attacks, then 6, then dead. Middle That souldgrinder fight lasted into the middle rounds, at which point I was encircled. The Krox charged a Beast unit and managed a grand total of three wounds. Since beasts have 4 wounds, he got 4D6+4 poison attacks back. Yeah, that went well. Remember, you're -1 to him him and he gets ward/regen. Also, Epidemius gets that tally up really fast when all models in the army are Nurgle. This got him better S, better T, and other stuff by turn 3. That left my Saurus and Carno having to try a desperate charge into the Epidemius unit, needing box cars to make it, which they failed, leaving them in his charge range instead. Lights out. His PBs get to S5 T5 and other perks, slam into my stuff that needs 5's to hit, 5's to wound, and then half those are negated. Even with 19 Attacks at S4 with PF I was doing 1 or 2 wounds max in combat. It was truly academic. Even a good roll on the Egg of Quango is only going to kill a model or two tops, which is what happened. So, yeah. Thanks for the encouragement, btw. I appreciate that. Hey, are you a clumsy/goofy German woman? Just wondering about your name.
Just want to say I am also enjoying this thread. It's great for us complete noobs to lizardmen and this edition of WHFB to have an ongoing series like this that looks at and analyses a range of units against a range of armies in practice rather than just going by the numbers. I think you cover just the right amount of detail in your reports without them getting too wordy. That nurgle game seems pretty rough - looks to me like you were playing the dice and the GW design team as well as your opponent!
This is an army report thread that's really inspiring. I have a match coming up late this month (i play rarely) and i made it late this month to paint the remaining 100ish models of my army, just hoping the quality gets good enough (for me). The thing at hand was that i'd really love to do something like this, have more of these threads around. It also opens up the opportunity for people to correct your errors - for instance in my last game against HE i had a unit of Krox deploy far right, with no possible enemy target, and he had finished deployment... Stuff like that and errors of minor details can be nitpicked better by others than by yourself! Great thread, i read most of the reports and enjoy them.
appreciate the write up! haha my name is actually an old name I used for my world of Warcraft character. I asked my friend to give me a funny sounding german word and he gave me Putzfrau. I liked the idea of my big bad orc warrior being named "cleaning woman" and its stuck ever since. as always of course, very much appreciate the effort and can't wait to keep reading!
Game 20 (Whoo hoo!) - 2400 vs Regular Dark Elf Guy (Game #6) Date: January 8, 2014 Opponent: Dark Elves (the regular opponent) Point Value: 2400 Scenario: Battleline Overview Well, here we are at game 20. I suppose that's something of a milestone. The temperature outside was -4 F, but the action on the table top was hot! I've been settling in to a fairly standardized list now, and I don't see that changing much. I'm starting to get the hand of how it works. I would like to play some 3000 point games so I could use more toys, but until then, we have what we have. My army: 1 Oldblood on Coldone - Glittering Scales, Dawnstone, Sword of Battle, Egg of Quango 1 L2 Beasts Skink (Wildform, Spear) 1 Scar-vet BSB - Carnosaur (Loping) - Armor of Destiny, Great Weapon, Shield 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields 29 Saurus - Full Command 5 Ripperdactyls 8 Kroxigore 1 Bastiladon - Solar Engine 1 Ancient Stegadon with Engine of the Gods His army (sort of) : Hag BSB on Cauldron with 15 witch elves General on Cold One with +3S Blade Hero on Cold One with +2S Blade 10 Cold Ones L3 Wizard (Doombolt, Bladewind, Soul Thingie) 5 Shades 16 Corsairs with handbows 16 Crossbowmen Bolt Thrower Hydra Kharybdiss My opponent is continuing to tweak his list a but, adding a few new things from game to game. I think that's fun. For his game I would have to try to handle the two monsters instead of just one. With his 2 and my 3, the table was full or roaring fun! The table had a hill in his zone, a few woods here and there (one of them in my zone put a wound on my Bastiladon to start the game....grr), and a farmstead with some bushes off to my left. His deployment, from my left to right, was: Corsairs, Kharybdiss, Cold Ones+Mounted Characters, Witches+Cauldron BSB, Shades scouted in the center of the table, hydra back in the line next to the witches, crossbows, bolt thrower on hill. My stuff, left to right: Skinks+Shaman, Bastiladon, Kroxigor, Rippers behind Krox, Skinks, Saurus+General behind Skinks, CarnoBSB, Stegadon in woods (causes Fear!), skinks. The Rippers smelled a toad in the Cold One unit. I won the roll to go first. Summary of Events Turn 1 - I advanced my central skinks toward his scouts and put them at an angle so that if the witches or cold ones charged I would send them across my lines where I could engage with my units in his flank. The skinks+shaman on the left advanced into the farmhouse. The skinks on the right made a beeline for the bolt thrower. My center shuffled a bit for position and range adjustment. Magic went well. The Bastiladon got a Total Power doing 5 S4 hits to the witches, killing 2. The Shaman got a boosted Total Power Spear and sent Kharybiss back to the briny deep in one shot! The miscast killed two skinks. Shooting had pretty much no effect. In his turn he moved the scouts to the right, out of the way. Other stuff advanced. He was not sure what to do about the Krox/Cold One looming confrontation and advanced just a bit. Magic came around and Soul Thingie killed two skinks, adding two wounds to his sorceress. This was done with Total Power, which cost him a level, that spell, and the ability to cast anything more that turn. He shot his bolt thrower at the CarnoBSB and missed. The corsairs killed a skink in the building and the crossbowmen killed 2 skinks on the right. Turn 2 - My Kroxigor charged his Cold Ones. The central skinks created better overrun lanes should he charge. Also, if the Cold Ones won combat, they would have to hit the skinks. Other stuff in the middle got into better spots. The skinks on the right got to close range on the bolt thrower. All I really cared about in Magic was getting Wildform on the Krox. His knights are S4, so I needed to get the help. I opened with the Bastiladon, which got the 6 result but only killed 3 scouts (who then panicked). My Wildform got stopped with a scroll. Shooting eliminated the Bolt Thrower. Combat was ugly. Before I could swing, his Cold Ones killed 4 Kroxigor. Keep in mind, I charged him, not the other way around. Still, when you get to reroll all to hit rolls and all to-wound rolls (nearby Cauldon), it's not pretty. Of the wound rolls he made, three would have failed if I had Wildform up. That's one full Krox that died because that spell failed. I knew my unit was toast, so I opted to see if I could take out the characters before I went. With 6 S7 attacks at each guy I managed to totally miss his general and put 2 wounds on the Hero. The Hero had a 1+ save and could re-roll one failed save. He rolled a 5 and a 2, re-rolling for a 1. He lived. Had the Wildform been up, the 5 would have failed and the Hero would have been dead. The lack of Wildform was a 4 point swing in combat resolution. The Krox failed their break check and were run down, but the Cold Ones had to hit the skinks. In his turn, he charged the witches at the skinks as well and tossed the hydra at the Stegadon. The Coarsairs failed a charge against the skinks in the building and lost one of their number to my stand and shoot reaction for their trouble. The scouts rallied and the wizard left the crossbowmen to join them. Magic did nothing put Frenzy on the Cold Ones. The Crossbows shot and killed a bunch of the skinks on the right, who fled. My skinks died in combat, drawing his Cold Ones into my killzone. The witches only went 2 inches. The battle between the hydra and stegadon went poorly for the stegadon, but he held his ground. Turn 3 - It was time! The Rippers went into the flank of the Cold Ones and the Saurus hit their front. I also tried a long distance charge of the Bastiladon into the flank of the witches, but it failed. My skinks on the right rallied. Magic did nothing. Shooting killed another Corsair. In combat, my Stegadon (on its last wound) did three wounds to the hydra. It ran and I chased it down. Last game a dragon, and now a hydra. Yeah! The other combat went stupidly well. Two Rippers died before they could fight due to ASF and Murderous Prowess. In return, they killed the champion and 2 other knights. His knights also killed 8 Saurus, but my Saurus killed all his knights and his hero in return. The general fled and was chased down. My pursuit slammed the Saurus unit into the Cauldron. In his turn the Corsairs finally made it to the building. Magic was nothing. Crossbowmen killed my last two skinks on the right. It was combat time again,, and I did not have to deal with impact hits from the Cauldron for one. Here's the thing. We got into a challenge between the Cauldron and the Oldblood and my opponent revealed that he had followed my advice and put the Obsidian Blade on his Hag. With 5 attacks rerolling all to hit and to wound rolls, and me getting no armor save (bye bye re-rollable 1+), I knew it could be over for me. He did his best and only managed 1 wound (plus zero more from the other ladies on the cauldron). I swung back with 6 S5 attacks and...hit with 1, which was not even predatory. I did get the wound past her ward though. The other witches killed 1 Saurus before I could swing, but then I killed a pile of witches, taking the unit down to 4. It broke, costing him the BSB/Cauldon and his unit standard. He conceded the game. It was my turn next and I could chase the last three witches while keeping my other stuff safe. He could not come back with only the Corsairs, Crossbowmen and his wizard left. Result: Massive win to Lizardmen, in honor of game #20. Post-game Thoughts and Unit Evaluations Wow! What wild swings. I can't say it enough times. In 8th edition it's almost never too late for fortunes to change. Hang in there! When Kharybdiss went down so early and then the Krox charged his knights, I felt I had the game. Then the Krox died and I thought I was lost. Then the combo charge cascaded death in my favor. Exciting! Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields They really helped today. They shaped the flow of events in the center, protected my shaman (other than from my own stupidity), and took out a bolt thrower. Javelins+skirmishers are the right combo. Saurus Warriors Yowza! I did not expect that! The sheer volume of S4 attacks meant that even his armor could not stand up. If the Oldblood and his Egg (used it and got 4 S5 hits that killed just one knight) had done average, it would have been even more lopsided. Then they hit the witches, who were unable to kill much despite getting 10 poison hits. Armor and parry (or Stegadon aura) for the win! I know I keep harping on it, but PF in more than the first rank is just not needed. If we get it some day I'll take it (and go with spears instead of hw+sh), but until then, it's just greedy to try to play it that way (against the rules). Ripperdactyls I screwed up or it would have been even better. They had 5 Attacks each and I rolled them first, meaning half had to hit his champion. The riders should have gone first and may have killed the champion first, allowing the Rippers to wade into the normal troops. Even with that goof, they punished the knights, with 3 dying to killing blow alone. I kept them behind my lines, waiting for the right moment, something I saw in Lizardmatt's post somewhere I believe. That totally worked out. Bastiladon His blasts were useful but not game-winning. He just keeps on proving to me he deserves his spot in the list. Ancient Stegadon I was conservative with him as well this game, keeping him near my lines for support and ward saves. It paid off, though I think I may have been lucky to live vs. the hydra. He's next up on my painting table. That aura of his may just be enough to convince me that spears are the way to go on Saurus. If they ever modify PF, they can sell me 3-5 boxes of Saurus the next day so I can make spearmen. Kroxigor I have got to remember that his two characters will easily kill 2-3 Krox on their own before I swing and that the rest of the unit will do another 1-2. I should expect 3 dead and often 4 before I swing, and that means their attacks would have to do well above average to make up the difference. I'm not saying I should not get into this fight, or others like it, but I need to set expectations and a mission before engaging. Also, Wildform. Grr. Saurus BSB on Carnosaur Keeping him back in my lines, offering an 18" BSB bubble is really useful. He can support early, and then contribute where needed if the situation comes up. I think I am seeing how to best use him in my list and with my style. Oldblood on Cold One He survived well enough, but his offensive output was miserable again. I really need to look more closely at this guy and how I am using him. Skink Shaman That Amber Spear just proved what I've said all along - cannons are too good. This was, in essence, a cannon. I actually felt a little bad killing his monster with it, but part of me felt oh so good as well. Thanks for reading!
Nice win Sleb! Like you say, it does seem to me that you are getting to grips with your Lizards and it's starting to show. Good to see the Saurus Warriors pulling their weight. I think they are much maligned and really enjoy using them. With regards to your Old Blood, I notice that you've given him the Sword of Battle (+1 Attack) presumably to try for that extra PF attack. Might I suggest a slight tweak and give him instead the Sword of Striking (+1 to hit). He has a respectable (if not brilliant) WS and a very good base strength on 5 attacks as it is. All of a sudden when you are against anything that is WS5 or lower you are hitting on 2s, you're hitting other characters with better WS on 3s instead of 4s (and it will help negate that pesky Mark of Nurgle should you come up against it). I know throwing more dice generally helps to even out statistical anomalies, and getting and extra PF attack is nice but if half of his attacks are missing anyway.... I run my BSB Scar Vet with this sword (along with Potion of Strength) and he can do some serious damage at times! Just a minor tweak suggestion to an otherwise good-looking list. Keep the reports coming, they are the perfect length for battle reports without maps and pictures.
Thanks for the advice, laribold - always welcome. There's merit to what you say, especially for negating the Mark of Nurgle, but as it turns out, I've been leaning the opposite direction. I am thinking of dropping the Egg and getting my Oldblood the +2 or even +3 Attack sword! Part of the reason is that I've always valued the potential for more over a greater likelihood on less. Now, this may seem to be at odds with my desire for predictable results, and in truth I struggle with it (see my recent conversion from blowpipes to javelins for how that has impacted me), but there's just something about knowing you could[/] get all the way up to 8 Attacks even before PF (where's that Trog!?) that appeals to me. I'd like to have the option to kill 8 witch elves instead of being capped ay 5. Know what I mean? I may go with the +1 to-hit sword at some point, especially after my Epic Whiff in my last game. We'll see. If I do, you'll read about it here (and feel free to chime in and take the credit ).
Love your writings here Sleboda. Going to drop my Slann (keeps dissapointing me without doing much) for your carno build. It seems to do better then my Slann. Krox don't seem to work for me, but I only own 3. So love my sallies, now that they can't march and shoot anymore I don't feel that bad about playing with them. Thx for posting all those wonderfull battle reps.
Game 21 - 2400 vs Regular Dark Elf Opponent (Game #7) Date: January 15, 2014 Opponent: Dark Elves (the regular opponent) Point Value: 2400 Scenario: Battleline Overview As a way to kick off the next 20 games, I decided it was time try something very much out of character for my army. I opted to add in a Slann! I've heard such good things, plus I feel like High Magic solves so many problems for the book, that I figured I darn well better give it a shot. I was going to have to free up 420 points to fit him in, so I looked for ways to trim. First off, the Engine of the Gods could go away. The spell booster doesn't help High Magic, and the bound would be taking away from things I really wanted to cast. So there was really no need for it. Next, my priest was dropped since the Slann would be my new caster. Finally, I had to make the hard cut. Out went the Oldblood Cowboy. His primary job was to add combat resolution to the Saurus block or to intercept things like Witch Elves. Well, I have not used him to intercept yet, and High Magic boosts could shift the numbers to let the Saurus do the work on their own. The other perk - being able to kill ethereals - is also handled by High Magic. So, with the change made, I got ready to take on my opponent. My army: 1 Slann - Loremaster High Magic, Ethereal, Re-roll first failed dispel 1 Scar-vet BSB - Carnosaur (Loping) - Armor of Destiny, Great Weapon, Shield 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields 29 Saurus - Full Command 5 Ripperdactyls 8 Kroxigore 1 Bastiladon - Solar Engine 1 Ancient Stegadon His army (sort of) : Hag with Obsidian Blade on Cauldron with 18 witch elves and Razor Standard General on Dragon with +3S Blade, Charmed Shield, and more BSB on Cold One with Sword of Might and more 9 Cold Ones L2 Wizard (Doombolt, Bladewind) 5 Shades 16 Corsairs with handbows 16 Crossbowmen Bolt Thrower Kharybdiss We had sort of a standard deployment of terrain and models with lots of our stuff focused on a fight in the middle. Summary of Events Early Turns- His shades took a semi-central building and held out against two units of skinks shooting and one unit fighting. Bladewind killed another unit of skinks for the most part (reduced their size and made them easy to kill in combat). Vaul's Unmaking (or whatever it is called) destroyed the BSB's weapon and the General's armor re-roll item. The Bastiladon killed three witches and was then scrolled next turn. My Kroxigor failed a long charge into his Knights, who then charged in return. He tried to Frenzy the knights, but I dispelled it. In that combat, his did 9 wounds before I swing, but then I killed his BSB and 6 Knights. I stayed and killed the unit next turn (but not before losing another Krox). Elsewhere, the Dragon, Kharybiss, and Witches charged and killed the Stegadon and remaining Kroxigor, then overran into the Saurus, killing 28 of 29 before they could swing. Or something like that. It was a big cluster in the middle with nothing of mine living. Before my third turn, the game was over. Result: Slaughter in favor of the vengeful Dark Elves. Post-game Thoughts and Unit Evaluations Hmm. Well, then plan was to dominate in magic and use my spells to shift the numbers at key moments. For example, I had the Bastiladon in position to make the Krox I2. With Hand of Glory, I could get them up to I5. Even though they would still strike last due to ASL, their Initiative score would negate the ability for the Cold One Knights to re-roll misses. Yes, yes, yes...I know. They are at least I5 themselves so the plan would have failed. That's not the point. I never even got to get to that point of failure because of something the BRB tells us and that my years of TK play taught me - never rely on magic as your plan. Vaul's was nice in taking out the magic weapon (which I expected to be the Ogre Blade, but oh well) and wounding the BSB, but that was about all magic did for me all game, despite having a clear edge. Why? 4,1. 4,1. Those were my winds rolls. Your plan will fall apart if you only get to try two spells max and one gets cancelled each phase. Counting on magic is a bad, bad...bad idea. His bolt thrower took 3 wounds off my Carnosaur on its first shot and I never got to use Apotheosis to heal him, which was another part of my plan. Again, don't count on magic. I know I should try more games, but I don't really have any desire to do so. It's not like it was a disaster. I didn't miscast or anything. I was betrayed by the simple Winds roll. If the whole plan can go that poorly so easily, it's a bad plan. Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields I am now fully convinced they are better than blowpipes. Quick to Fire and armor/parry > 2 shots that often can't even get poison. I will say this, though. Ld5, even with Coldblooded, means that they will be running often. You just have to know that going in and accept it. Saurus Warriors I had the order a little messed up above. I did actually have one round of combat with the Saurus on Kharybdiss alone. I lost 4 models to him and did a wound back, winning the combat by 2. He stayed and then that scrum took place. Today they failed utterly. Next time maybe they will be better. By the way, PF was responsible for the wound he took. Ripperdactyls They Toaded the Knights and positioned so that after the knights killed the Krox, they could sweep into their side and dominate. Turns out the Krox didn't need the help, so they charged the flank of the witches at one point and were wiped out before they could swing - against just standard witches. With re-rolls + re-rolls + Razor, there's really no point to fighting witches. Bastiladon He drew out a dispel scroll with his laser gun and provided middle support. I say it all the time, but he's really just right. At 3K I will almost certainly add another. Ancient Stegadon His job today was to die. He got out in front of the witches and angled so that they could not hit my Sausus. Impact hits alone did 4 wounds to him. Not a good day to be a stegadon. Kroxigor I thought for sure they were doomed when they failed the charge. As it turns out, they showed me once again the power of 8 over 6. Even so, had I not dispelled the Frenzy, they would have died in that first round. I do really love seeing them melt heavy cavaly with such ease, though. Saurus BSB on Carnosaur He did his normal thing. He hung back and waited for a good moment to fight. Unfortunately, that moment never came as my army was pretty much dead in turn 2. Slann Well, I tried. I really don't see the need or fascination. I never had to use the dispel re-roll. He never got targeted by magic attacks. Loremaster was cool, but with 5 power dice, you are not doing much anyway. My 100 point Priest would have been nearly as effective. Thank goodness I have not wasted time painting him yet. Thanks for reading!
Hey Sleboda, I gotta say, I love reading this thread each week. I too am working on a Lizard army now, and have been focusing on more of a combat theme. When I saw this post today I was definitely going noo, not 20 games with a Slann!. Definitely rough losing so big so early, but I like that you're probably going to go back to the Oldblood! I really think that staying away from the Slann is the more reliable, competitive, and fun(!) way to field Lizards. I wish you luck as you continue your journey, whichever way it goes, as long as it stays fun! GhostWarrior
Just curious about the choice of Ethereal on the Slann? If he's in combat it's a bad situation anyway - although a ethereal with crown of command would have held up the witches if they don't have magical attacks. I've been meaning to try Lord Kroak out - knowing your affinity for special characters (TK!) you might give it a shot to see if you like him better.
An etheral slann with the CoC would have held up the witches untill their ranks killed him. Stubborn provides Steadfast - > Steadfast does not mean you don't lose combat by a certain amount of points, but simply that you use unmodified leadership during break tests. He could have stayed, but unstable makes him lose wounds due to CR.
I went ethereal because I never intended to get him in combat. He was floating around behind the lines, providing Ld9 and (supposedly) spell support. He was still alive when the game was over. Without ethereal he would have been a pin cushion. @GhostWarrior and Creeping Death - Glad you are enjoying the thread! It's been fun for me too.
I would recommend trying a Slann that doesn't force your strategy to rely on magic. Magic should have more of a supporting role. Something like: Slann w/ Channeling Staff, Wandering Deliberations (reroll dispel) and Harmonic Convergence (+1 to channel roll) That'll save you 50 points. I think Deliberations is almost as good as a dispel scroll and Harmonic+Staff can (when your dice are hot) give you an edge in casting and dispel phases (I've had game where I channeled 1 - 2 dice per phase, and games where I channeled once the entire game) Forget about loremaster and learn to love randomness. Roll for your spells and choose a good support lore (High, Life, Light, maybe Metal). And work your strategy around only expecting to get 1 spell off per magic phase. And for protection, instead of Ethereal, you can throw your Slann in a unit of Skink skirmishers (a unit of Skinks costs more than Higher State, but you have the option of not putting the Slann in them if you face an opponent that doesn't have any shooting).
Thanks for the thoughts. Funny enough, almost everything you say leads to exactly why I prefer to just go with a L2 Beast Shaman. Wildform supports my plan nicely without much investment, and the second spell is whatever it is, giving some random fun to play with. On that, though - Eff Random. Eff it in the A. I hate random. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I want predictability. Very little annoys me more in a game than when I have a good plan, execute it well, and then *oopsie!* there's a failed 9 inch charge with a 6 inch moving unit or *shucks darn* that spell that needed a 13 to cast and gets +4 (needing a 9) rolls 1,1,1,1,2,2 on 6 dice. Grrr. I try to build lists that treat randomness like The Gimp - masked, zippered, and locked in the basement only to be let out on occasion for a bit of deviant fun.
Heh, I like to play Doug Flutie style. You think keeping 18 inches away from my Stegadon will stop me from charging you? Get ready for some box cars! I'm still a fan of the Lore of Life. Especially with Stegs, Carnosaurs, Bastiladons, and Kroxigors. Lifebloom is awesome for them, and regrowth can keep you in the game when you thought all was lost. And I've been running my Slann in a big unit of Temple Guard where Earthblood gives them amazing survivability. 350+ points is a lot to spend on something that might not do anything in some game. Same could be said for a Carnosaur that runs into a gunline. It all depends on your meta, really. Concerning your Gimp. You can play everything perfect and safe and still lose the game, but random goes both ways. I'd rather lose with a good story than win and forget about it.
Joe, I don't have the mental fortitude to watch you try and get magic to work in a warhammer army again. Have your years with the magic depended Tomb Kings taught you nothing? For those of you not familiar with Sleboda's track record with magic, the fact that his mage lived until the end of the game and didn't blow up half his own army is in the top 95% of results for him using magic. The reason he hates random is because random hates him right back. Normally in the magic phase. Drop the frog..Add back in the Oldblood And in another Oldblood for good measure. Let your Skink priest get sucked in the warp. Let him take his little lizard friends with him and laugh because it won't stop your old bloods from ruining other people's day. Just watch out for large blocks of cheap infantry which could bog them down. P.S. Take some salamanders to fry them large blocks of cheap infantry...
doug flutie... last good quarterback the bills had! also, f the pats. I hope manning crushes them this weekend. wait a second... this isn't a football forum... where am I!
Game 22 - 2400 vs. Tomb Kings Date: January 17, 2014 Opponent: Tomb Kings Point Value: 2400 Scenario: Battleline Overview As soon as I saw my opponent's army, I knew I had an easy victory coming my way, for several reasons. Tomb Kings are the worst army in the game by a mile. I know the army inside and out. I played for years with just that army right up until I moved on to Lizardmen. My opponent's list was (no offense to him) incredibly suboptimal, even for a TK army. Then as we lined up I got even more confident because my Kroxigor had his knights lined up and his chariots would be easily flanked by the Rippers (and the Toad was in the chariots). I was going to have a cake walk. My army: 1 Oldblood on Coldone - Glittering Scales, Dawnstone, Sword of Battle, Egg of Quango 1 L2 Beasts Skink (Wildform, Spear) 1 Scar-vet BSB - Carnosaur (Loping) - Armor of Destiny, Great Weapon, Shield 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields 29 Saurus - Full Command 5 Ripperdactyls 8 Kroxigore 1 Bastiladon - Solar Engine 1 Ancient Stegadon with Engine of the Gods His army (sort of) : Prince with basic items L4 Nehek with 4+ ward 40 skeletons 6 chariots 6 horse archers 5 horse archers 20 bowmen 20 bowmen 3 Stalkers 3 Knights 4 Knights Casket Catapult Catapult I mean, seriously, look at that. He even entombed the stalkers and 3 knights! Never a good idea. Catapults? Ohhhhhkaaaayyy....Come on, dude, at least make it look like you want to win. I knew exactly what to do - Crush the knights with the kroxigor, kill the chariots with the Rippers, then send whatever I wanted after his character bunker and have things wrapped up by turn 3. The best laid plans, as they say... Summary of Events He went first, but in his turn nothing really happened. Then I went. The Kroxigor peeled off toward the knights, exposing their flank to the chariots. I knew I would get charged, but come on, all I had to do was kill one chariot with shooting and magic and then the S4 impact hits could do what they wanted and I would be able to handle it, smash them back, and proceed to kill the knights. Well, magic blew softly and nothing worked. Shooting killed nothing. Hmm. It looks like this game would come down to the Kroxigor break check. No problem. He charged the Kroxigor and then made a big mistake by also sending the knights into the front. That meant that I would generate a ton of combat resolution against the knights and crumble both units. Game in the bag. His magic was super, of course. Must be nice to be a TK player whose magic doesn't screw him in his own tiny butthole. If I wanted good magic I had to use Khatep just to keep from blowing myself up. Not this guy! I let the casket go, because I know as a TK player that it's bark is much worse than its bite. It killed nothing. He then got the 5+ ward on the knights. Fine. He got 11 impact hits and killed 2 Krox outright. Not a good start, but manageable. The knights killed another 2. Down to 4, but so what? That's 12 S7 attacks and likely at least 2 PF attacks. Then it all went to pot. The chariot riders and horses killed to more Kroxigor. I made a grand total of zero armor saves and zero ward saves (Engine of the Gods). Zero. I did one wound back to him and ran away, getting run down. Game. I came thiiiiiis close to quitting the game (and Warhammer) then and there, but pushed on because in know from experience that 8th edition has plenty of ways to flip the script. Turns out, it didn't matter. We had a scrum in the middle with the Ancient Stegadon, Saurus+Oldblood, Rippers and Bastiladon trying to salvage something, but once again the TK army in the hand of someone other than me turns out to work just fine. The Ancient Stegadon did 2 impact hits and only 1 wound. The Saurus were nailed by a -3S -3T spell (I never cast that one boosted when I play since it's a 22+ to cast and still has a one-third chance to be identical to the non-boosted, plus to get to 22+ you need to toss lot of dice and risk blowing up your heirophant). He didn't miscast that one and never did have a miscast all game (whereas I tried to dispel things and rolled things like 3 ones when I needed only an 8 on 3 dice). His Stalkers and other Knights appears just fine. No misfires, no wild scatters. Must be nice. His shooting took out the Carnosaur (after it had killed an archer unit). I killed the catapults and the casket (which, of course, did not take out his stuff when it exploded, unlike how mine always kills my nearby units). The fight in the middle ended with pretty much everything dead on both sides. There was a round in there where I had 30 attacks on his chariots and inflicted a total of 1 wound. Yeah. One wound. At the end of the game I had my BSB and one unit of skinks left. That was it. He had the stalkers (who also never misfired a single shot - unlike my little suicidal guys), the smaller knight unit, an archer unit, the bunker, his characters, some horse archers... Oh! Speaking of horse archers, I should mention that a unit of 12 skinks charged a unit of 6 horse archers and lost combat 5-1, ran away, and were killed. Gee, too bad my skeletons don't get to work out at the gym like his do apparently. Result: Humiliating defeat for the Lizarmen. Post-game Thoughts and Unit Evaluations I seriously thought about quitting Warhammer last night. I had to admit to myself that I must be a really, really bad player if I can't beat a bad TK list. Nobody should ever lose to Tomb Kings once they understand how that army works, and for me to lose to it was just about the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me in Warhammer. I can't begin to describe just how miserable I felt after that loss. It really made me realize was a crappy player I am. Unit evaluations will be skipped this time. Nothing worked at all. Thanks for reading!