Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Quake City Rumble – Round 2 – Alex Easter - Empire


Mission: The Beer Wench Arrives
Deployment: Dawn Attack - Unit with Keg always rolls center.

Special Rules: One unit gets the Keg (Stupid, ITP, Stubborn, Cannot use character’s LD on break tests, cannot be joined by characters, must be core with either banner or champion).  Dropped Keg can be picked up by anyone and gets items of having key.  Can only be picked up during movement phase and ends movement.  Can only be dropped by fleeing from combat or dying.  NOTE: If the unit loses combat, the winner can pick up instead of OVERRUN or PURSUE (This will matter in the mission, oops!).

Bonus Points: 2 for stealing keg.  1 for protecting Keg, 1 for holding YOUR keg in opponent’s half of the table.


The List:

Arch Lector, General, Shrieking Blade, Armor of Meteoric Iron, Luckstone, Crown of Command
Wizard, Level 4, Lore of Light, Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon

Captain, BSB, Pistol, Shield, Warrior Bane, Helm of the Skavenslayer, Talisman of Endurance
Witch Hunter, Brace of Pistols
Master Engineer

39 Halberdiers, full command
10 Crossbows (Detachment)
19 Swordsman (Detachment)
10 Knights, musician, banner, Gleaming Pennant

30 Greatswords, full command, banner of eternal flame
15 Free Company (Detachment)
10 Huntsman
Great Cannon
Great Cannon

Hellblaster
Celestial Hurricanum

Alex is a member of the BizarroHammer club out of Davis.  With a comp of 8 and a big win Alex fell right into my trap.  That is to say, that my hopes that a small win round 1 would see me playing a big winner with a lower comp round 2 and not a lower comp army.  I wanted to be playing people softer than me all weekend and squeak in battle points, hopefully going big later in the event.  Before I had said that BizarroHammer was more hobby than tournament focused.  While still focused on the hobby, their team has really started to step up their play and I knew I was in for a challenge.  Luckily, I had the mission helping me along, and hopefully breaking up his battle line.  The hellblaster didn’t look like a lot of fun to me, probably taking off (or at least crippling) a unit a turn.  The cannons were probably going to be able to take out my two non-reverse ward save characters.  I had to hope that the inability of Alex to place one model and know that there will be something else to support it would play to my advantage and make these priority targets vulnerable.

For spells Alex gets Pha’s protection, banishment, burning gaze and Net… Harder to shoot, nukes my reverse ward save (and is only strength 4), a decent magic missile to kill dark riders and a thing to make me not run away when I want to with my strength 3 army (except for characters, which are a 4, thank you dark peg).  Not a great magic set up for me… why couldn’t he have gotten movement (which I could hide from) or weapon skill (which I don’t care about)?

My magic I rolled up searing doom and final transmutation on metal, giving death spirit leech, caress, soulblight, doom and darkness and purple sun.



We roll off and I get first turn, choose my side and start to roll for deployment.  I get a fairly normal looking set up.  Two dark riders on the left (one with a 6) along with my metal caster (which was good as his knights ended up opposite).  Center I had two dark riders and the harpies, along with both characters.  One unit of dark riders on the right, luckly to keep the huntsman back and the bolt throwers both took center.

Alex didn’t roll any for the left side (from my perspective) except for a cannon which he placed as close center as he could to be protected (and possibly hoping something else would be able to take that side.  Then came the knights far left center, the halbreds with detachments, the greatswords and the free company detarment holding the right side.  The Hurricanum also took right side, but he deployed it as far center as possible, and facing the center.  The hellblaster when on the line in the center and the other cannon went on the right, protected by the free company.

With the right flank free and clear I match up my two units of shades, knowing that one will get blasted by the hellblaster and hoping the forest will save me.  The dark riders all advance, mindful of his shooting.  He has the witch hunter select my general despite the killing blow no longer effecting him and fails to roll the 6, giving me the first turn.  He does put his huntsman fairly center/left ish, not sure what he was thinking.  Looking at the photos, it looks like I have a unit of shades way to close, I think it’s because I took this photo after I had moved them up from behind the other unit…otherwise I made a mistake that went uncaught.



I’m not sure what Alex was going for with the huntsman, maybe because they could be in the forest and he wanted to kill the metal caster.  I’m not sure.  But on turn 1 I charged them with that metal caster, who was not wounded by the stand and shoot.  With the shades there he didn’t want to flee so I jammed a unit of dark riders in as well, losing one to the dangerous terrain.  Otherwise I move up on all sides, including moving the assassins into range of the cannon and the dark riders on the right coming up around the free company (to which Alex cursed with his chariot facing the wrong direction).  I roll a 5/3 magic phase and proceed to roll snakes on my PoD for the death caster.  The other dice don’t do anything as my metal caster is in combat.  Together the assassins bring down the cannon.  I put 2 wounds on the Hellblaster (not sure couldn’t read my notes) and put 7 wounds on the cross bows.  I lose 2 dark riders but kill off the huntsman.


 


On Alex’s turn 1 he moves up strong, opening up the hellblaster to the shades.  He rolls a 5/2 magic phase after channels.  I scroll banishment on my general but he gets off net on the general.  The hellblaster only kills 1 shade.  The crossbows kill 1 harpy.  The witch hunter puts 1 wound on my general.  The cannon grapeshots the dark riders but it’s not effective at long range.

On my turn 2 the harpy unit charges the hell blaster.  The dark riders charge the cannon.  The other harpy unit flanks the hurricanum that was watching the rear for the right dark rider unit.  All the charges make it.  My caster fails his net test and so can’t fly away from the impending charge.  I roll an 8/6 magic phase.  Knowing my death wizard is likely to not cast, I throw 6 at a big searing doom on the knights which he scrolls.  I don’t both with 2 dice for final and move to shooting.  My breath weapon kills 22 halberds and puts a wound on the witch hunter that fails his test.  Both throwers kill only 4 more halberds.  I kill the engineer with the shades.  Dark riders take out the crossbows.  The other unit of shades kills 3 knights.  In combat I kill both the cannon and hellblaster.  I put 1 wound on the Hurricanum but he passes his test to flee with a 5, rerolling.  He doesn’t turn around though.


Alex’s turn 2 and the general makes his net test and flees from the charge.  The knights move up, so my fleeing general (should she rally) will be facing the knights on the flank, and 3 units.  A 6/5 magic phase has me dispelling banishment and burning gaze kills 1 dark rider which has them run off the table (only 3 left after fighting both trees and huntsman).  The harpies do 2 more wounds to the Hurricanum and run it down when it flees, barely keeping themselves on the table.


My turn 3 and I have no charges, and no real threats left.  My general rallies.  My turn for a 6/5 magic phase.  Alex dispels my PoD.  He then fails to dispel Spirit leech on his BSB.  With my last die I throw a 1 die PoD with metal caster, getting 3 more (8/5).  I then searing doom knights, getting 1.  In shooting I kill 4 knights, leaving 2.  I kill 9 halberds.  To protect my general from the knights I had put a unit of harpies and dark riders in front of the block units and knights respectively, so…


On Alex’s turn 3 he double charges the harpies and puts the last 2 knights into the dark riders.  The remaining halberds and characters book it to the building.  He then rolls a 6/5 magic phase.  I fail to dispel banishment on my general even though I rolled 5 dice to his 4.  Luckily it only does 1 wound.  He then double 6s burning gaze, failing to wound with it.  The miscast does a wound to the wizard and kills 1 halberd.  The building really mitigates the miscast.  The witch hunter take the charmed shield off the BSB.  The horses of the dark riders kill one of the last 2 knights.  He wiffs, and I win on the tie.  He is stubborn because of the keg and holds.  The harpies get just slaughtered.


My turn 4 my keg unit goes stupid, but luckily I have it far enough back that it doesn’t leave his deployment zone.  The shades charge the building, the other shades charge the knights and fail, but I had also charged with a unit of dark riders (both couldn’t make it), so I do get the second unit into combat that I wanted.  Dark Riders are pretty much just as good as an assassin vs T3, at least for the first round of combat (maybe even better with 6 attacks).  I roll a 7/5 magic phase and start off with getting 4 more on Pod (9/5).  I double 6 spirit leech on the BSB, getting no wounds and losing 5 dice.  In shooting I kill 4 swordsman.  In the building the arch lector doesn’t take a wound in the challenge and slaps down the assassin.  I then kill his wizard and all the halbreds.  He passes his test and keeps the building, with just the witch hunter (1 wound left) and the lector.  The Dark Riders kill the Knights – at which point I DON’T pick up the keg.  At the time I was thinking I could do it next turn… I didn’t remember I could do it on the over run.


Alex takes his turn, with the swordsman charging the bolt thrower I put to close to the line.  The BSB moves out of his unit to shoot my caster.  A 3/2 magic phase has me allowing the ward save on the building and I dispel the rerolling.  Forgot he didn’t have a caster when I let the first prayer through.  BSB fails to kill my caster.  The Bolt thrower doesn’t die.





Game is called due to time.  I consider asking to be allowed to pick up his keg for the points, thinking I had to do it during the movement phase.  I decide not to ask for special dispensation though, and only realized I could have gotten it the previous turn by doing this report.  But picking it up would have given me the 20 and I was trying to fly below top table radar.
 I had a good game.  Alex seemed engaged and willing to take on the challenge.  The deployment set him back where it barely fazed me.  Too many targets able to challenge his warmachines saw him quickly lose his ability to control the board.
 
 
HAHA... I didn't notice it until I was prepping this to post (a week after i wrote it and two weeks after qcr)... there is a hand print in that forst.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Quake City Rumble – Round 1 – Chris Watson – Warriors of Chaos


Mission: Staking Your Claim
Deployment: Meeting Engagement

Special Rules: Person traveling farthest places first terrain and it must be a hill in the center (giving the local the real advantage of first real choice – LOL).  Traveller gets +1 to go first

Bonus Points: 2 for having more models on the center of the hill.  1 for destroying largest enemy unit, by model count.  1 for keeping highest point core unit alive and not fleeing.


The List:

Daemon Price, General, Mark of Nurgle, Daemonic Flight, Level 2 Wizard, Lore of Nurgle, Dawnstone, Nurgle’s Rot, Scaled Skin, Flaming Breath, Soul Feeder

Sorcerer, Mark of Tzeentch, Lore of Tzeentch, Level 2, Disc of Tzeentch, Talisman of Endurance, Chaos Familiar
Exalted Hero, Mark of Tzeentch, BSB, Shield, Tormentor Sword, Talisman of Preservation, Third Eye of Tzeentch
Exalted Hero, Mark of Tzeentch, Warrior Bane, Shield, Armor of Fortune

35 Chaos Warriors, full command, Shields

6 Dragon Ogres, great weapons
8 Chaos Ogres, mark of Nurgle, musician, champion, great weapons


I saw this list and my heart skipped a beat.  Could I be so lucky as to face a block army in the first round?  Then I looked at the mission and was less happy.  Stringing out warriors and I was blocked in that corner and never getting out.  3+ armor and a 6+ ward save (and a good thing I didn’t need to fight them with a 5+ parry).  How would I kill that?  And then on the last turn, reforming on center, placing that entire unit right on the center hill.  Ouch.  Lucky for me my opponent hadn’t seen my style of list and the tactic didn’t occur to him.  I did give him my URL, so maybe I just screwed myself out a win for next time.  Note:  this block the center tactic on meeting engagement was what I did to Justin when I played his Wood Elf version with my Tower skaven… the game that inspired me to make this army.

As I said in that previous post, there was likely no chance to take the hill in this mission.  My largest unit is only 10 models with a character, and I doubted I would be so strong as to be able to put my entire army in one position and then not die or have to flee them all off.  So knowing this my goal was to just go for the last point, keeping my unit alive… very doable.  Of course this would also mean that my opponent was getting the +3 easy, and maybe even the +4 if got his chosen shade unit.

But I still needed to get points off this army, and I knew that the magic would take its toll and that the breath weapon would mean 1 dead unit (or an easily cleaned up with magic later on unit).  I needed to kill the Prince and the Disc, and fast.  Their points will probably make up for the amount of damage they would be able to do before they died, so I needed a unit as well.  With chaos armor the Ogres were a touch nut, and with 4 wounds and heavy armor the dragon ogres didn’t look much better.  I knew not to waste my time on the warriors.  I decided on the Ogres, with 6 less wounds – I figured the math was fairly close given the armor saves.

Chris is a Texas player.  He let me know he hadn’t played much since the last Alamo (November 2012) and that he wasn’t that familiar with his new book.  It showed some, such as not knowing how the marks had changed and no knowing the ads for his lore (+T/W for nurgle and extra dice for tzeentch).  This rules knowledge only hurt him a little though, I think he missed a few extra power dice.  His list was defiantly not optimal, with the 3+ rerolling ward on foot and not the disc, but then if he had done the things needed to optimize he wouldn’t have been anywhere near my 6 comp.  Once he got a good look at my army he wasn’t happy, and let the judge know every time he walked by.  He was great to me though, and made it clear he didn’t begrudge my army selection, just being paired against the paper to his rock on the first round.

For spells he took Curse of the Leper and Rancid Visitation on his prince, with his sorcerer taking Firestorm, Treason and Infernal Gateway.  Three nasty spells for me as Ivan (the judge) ruled that Treason activated mount leadership even though it doesn’t specifically make mention of mounts and the general rule book says never use mounts.  I would have hoped that it would have to specify overriding a rule, otherwise the lowest within the rule could be an effective ruling.  It would make a Skaven unit leadership 0 if there was a bell involved.  Nasty when paired with death magic.

I took Spirit Leech, Caress, Soul Blight, Doom and Darkness, and Purple Sun on death and Searing Doom and Golden Hounds on my metal wizard.


For the meeting engagement, Chris took first turn and deployed his entire army – no 1s. I only rolled a single 1, on a unit of harpies. Chris deploys his warriors center as expected with both walking characters. He then flanks them with the dragon ogres on the left and the nurgle ogres on the right. The flyers go behind. I spread out my cavalry, two on the left/center and three on the right. I want to be able to focus on those ogres, but not to the point where he will be able to encircle my army in a corner. By splitting I do lose some effectiveness in the short term, but confuse his options and allow myself to wrap around –good in the long term. I was hoping the two left units could get around and start peppering the flyers. I put the characters in the back center, away from his flyers and with plenty of room to run as needed. I then put both shades in the back to bring the assassin to the characters quickly. I vanguard towards the right back board edge, and keep my bonus unit in my backfield on left (center?).

I was not able to roll the 6 to go first.
 
The first thing Chris does is take those two flyers and move them into position to whack the shades.  He also advances slightly in the center.  On a mighty 12/6 magic phase (not a good way for me to start the tournament), he starts with rancid visitation on his objective shades.  I dispel it.  He then casts gateway on the other unit of shades and bowls the mighty double 6s.  4 hits, phew… but then he rolls a 12 for strength, allowing him to add another 6 hits, all of which are strength 10.  He only rolls 1 1, and I pick up the unit without even being able to reveal the assassin.  He loses 2 dice and the caster ward saves his wound and doesn’t go into the warp on his cascade (he forgets at this point that he should add two dice to his pool for the 6s that caused the miscast).  I dispel the final spell which has only 1 die rolled versus my 3 (I rolled really high, so I think even had he gotten the two dice I would have likely dispelled anyways).  The daemon prince then burps over the other unit, killing 6 and panicking the shades.


On my turn 1 the unit rallies and the assassin pops out.  The unit is now standing smack dab in between the daemon prince and the caster.  I face the daemon prince (a mistake it turns out as it seems he wasn’t facing my unit, despite having just breathed on them…very strange).  I move around on both sides.  The harpies just sort of sit there.  This is my first game with them and I haven’t quite figured out what to do with them.  I don’t bring on the second unit.  I get a 9/6 magic phase, throw 2 for Power of Darkness and get 4 for my trouble (11/6).  I attempt to spirit leech the lesser hero but he makes his wardsaves.  I caress the same guy but roll snakes.  I then fail to cast soulblight – yay for magic.  My metal wizard then bowls 2 dice for power of darkness and gets to back (still 11/6).  I golden hounds the same character, he makes all his look out sirs and I kill 3 warriors.  In shooting a put a wound on the dragon ogres and 8 on the ogres.


On Chris’ turn 2 he has no charges, but does dance with me a little.  Later he would inform me of the facing of the prince (which I think was a mistake on his part) and that he didn’t feel that his caster could take the assassin in the rear (also I think a mistake with that 4+ ward save).  At the time I make note of this lack of charge and hypnotize that he just thinks he can clear me off with magic.  He rolls a 7/4 magic phase (and realizes when checking his spells that he forgot those dice from the last turn).  I throw all my dice to dispel rancid on the shades and scroll gateway at the same target.



My turn 2 and I pass all my march tests.  I bring on the unit of harpies on the left side.  I roll a 10/7 magich phase.  I roll 2 at PoD for +4 (12/7).  I spirit leach and do 3 wounds to an ogre.  He dispels soul blight on the ogres.  I do 1 wound to ogres with caress, which takes off a model.  He then dispels Hounds on the daemon prince.  In shooting I do 1 wound to the prince with the dark riders (take that 2+ rerollable with 5+ ward).  I also put 9 more wounds on the ogres, leaving 1 model.  I put 2 wounds on the dragon ogres and kill the flyer with the assassin (awesome!).


His turn 3 and he dances with me some more, trying to block me off from getting around and setting up a kill zone with his prince.  He also moves the Ogre back to the fence to try to keep it alive.  This does mean that he has allowed his right flank to collapse though, opening up a big hole and all the access to the prince I could crave.  He gets 6/4 magic phase.  I allow the ogre to go up +2T as I have plenty of shooting a magic to focus on him.  I then dispel rancid on the shades.


My turn 3 and no charges.  I only get a 4/3 magic phase.  I 2 dice PoD for +3 (5/3).  He dispels Spirit Leech on the ogre.  My metal wizard breaks even on her PoD (5/3) and I do 1 wound to the ogre with searing doom.  I put 2 wounds on the prince with the assassin, and the shades follow up and sneak the last wound through the three save rolls.  I put another 2 wounds on the dragon ogre and knock the ogre off the table.  Also, due to the dragon ogres having turned around, I put a unit of harpies in front of them to feed them so they can’t even attempt the long charge into the rear of my cluster of dark riders going after the prince.


On Chris’ turn 4 he charges and kicks off the harpies.

On my turn 4 I encircle what is left of his army and plan to push the warriors off the hill to which they have become entrenched.  I roll a 6/3 magic phase.  I 2 dice PoD for 3 back (7/3).  I put Doom on the warriors, and get nothing for a spirit leech.  I fail to cast Soul Blight.  During shooting my breath weapon puts 1 wound on the BSB after failing his look out sir and kills 5 measly warriors.

Chris’ turn 5 and all he does is dispel the doom.  He does start to move his warriors, but I advice him that the hill is worth bonus points and he decides to forsake chasing his attackers.

My turn 5 and knowing it’s the last turn I sneak 1 harpy barely onto the hill.  I roll a 9/5 magic phase, double 6 searing doom, putting a wound on the metal wizard and losing 5 dice.  I end my own phase another double 6 is the only way I could cast a spell and I don’t’ want it that bad.  I shoot the warriors but don’t even cause a panic test.

I finish up with a strong win, but only +1 points, with him getting a hard loss but with +3 points.  Not reflective of the match in terms of points, but good enough.

Chris was a fun opponent.  While he complained to the judge for the match up, I never felt that he was actually upset with me for the list.  He seemed to know that it was a valid list.  I did here later that he played the triple terrorgeist list that scored a massive 1 composition score.  That one he was complaining about it even being allowed at the event at all.  I guess on turn 1, the three together screamed 23 of the 24 wounds of the ogres and by turn 3 had cleaned up the warriors as well.  I wish him luck and hope to play him again one day… preferably not when he is just getting back into things, but when he is at his peak as I imagine he is a good player who was just out of practice facing a rough match up.  Lastly, Chris did end up winning Best Painted and the best large model paint award.  His army was beautiful.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Hobby Update - Iron Daemon

Yay to more progress. I started out with the front spikes. My first thought was to have them sweep out alongside the front wheel in front of the side wheels but i couldnt figure how to get that to work with what i had in a way i liked, so i decided to keep it closer to the true doomwheel.


I used the wing pieces from the doom wheel with the correct center piece. Instead of putting it on the side of the wheels as is normal i used the center hole and hooked it onto the spoke. Luckily, it was of a proper length to let me hook in that center bit without interfering with the front wheel. (The cannons are  hooked into one of the attachment points on the rear wheels. 


Here are the spikes. I also removed the attachment hooks i wasnt using which gives it a more streamlined look which i like. It also let me play with the angle some. Its just below head level of a clanrat, so about center torso to a man. 

I then installed the scopes, no picture. The one side just went in its normal spot, but the doom wheel only comes with the one side as an option. So i busted out my power drill and made a little space. 

 
Last for the evening i decided to start on the top bar. The above picture shows two of the normal crossbars. As you can see they arent going to be enough. I rummaged through my bits and found this near perfect sized piece to fill the gap. 


Not wanting the chaos warrior eye, I went back to my bits box and came up with:



Havent finished chopping it down yet. Im thinking that i will leave the arrows behind the banner topper but that i will give the plate's corners a little rounding with my dremel. 

To wrap up the evening I put on some clamps to hold it all together so i could get some different angles. 




Added a flash to show the still headless driver. 




Have a good night. Hope to finish the top bar over the weekend, get those heads on and then move onto the rest; cables...is that it?

Friday, July 26, 2013

Quake City Rumble – Arrival


 
QCR is really the highlight of the yearly local events for Fantasy in Northern California.  Makes me a little sad to say this, as I would love the local SAWS to be this flagship event.  SAWS is however lacking in one major aspect… Beer.  This year they increased the beer from 3 kegs to 4.  And that is for an event the exact same size as the previous year.  They finished 3 between noon and midnight Saturday and the dregs of the fourth before lunch on Sunday.  It was quite impressive.  I did notice that there seemed to be less people who had brought their own drinks, but that could just be because those people whom I normally see in Sacramento who brought their own booze didn’t attend this year.  There was actually a big drop in Sacramento attendance (the Feliz brothers, the Havener brothers, Dustin, Grigsby, and Carbone, just to name 7 off the top of my head as I write this).
I hope that next year they finally take the step and expand, as I’m sure that would allow other areas besides Texas to fly in a large group.  The LD2 group, and some peripheral gamers, like myself, who travel have been doing their best to try to get the word out and encourage other areas to attend.  I hope that they are successful at getting this additional attendance, but not at the expense of the long standing players and other local growth.
The LD2 guys have come up with quality tournament terrain, if basic.  None of the fancy stuff of Northstar and WaaaghPACA! but good quality tournament terrain.  The fancy stuff does sometimes have the drawback of impeding play.  They know their stuff, and I think we only started 15-20 minutes late on Saturday morning and on time-ish Sunday.  I wasn’t able to stay for scores (oh no, end talk during arrival post!), as I had to go home for a personal thing I needed to do in the evening.
I’ve already talked about the missions, so I won’t be doing that specifically.  I will be mentioning them again in the context of the game and the match up.
My goal for the event was to not get a 20 on the table.  Or at least not for the first rounds.  I figured that my judge composition score of 6 could either be an advantage or a disadvantage, and that it was up to me to decide which.  If I went and scored a 20 rounds 1 and 2 I’d end up playing with the big time comps, the 1s and 2s by the end of the day.  I knew the people at that end of the spectrum (heck, I’m often one of them) and I knew they play for blood.  But if I skimmed 18s out of every game I would play softer composition armies, and later in the even players who had been able to get a few early 20s but then got slapped with losses when they hit the big timers.  I decided on the later.  Get 18s, have easier games, which would be less stressful.  Yes, perhaps that would mean that even with 5 wins I wouldn’t place, but that wasn’t a big deal.  After all, this is 2013, not 2012.  RankingsHQ is dead, I’ve proved I’m good and therefore can relax and play for fun (that is fun besides ‘winning is fun’).
I’m sure I could ramble on a little while longer, but I won’t drag this near pictureless post out.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Hobby Update - Iron Daemon

So another week of family sick break from hobby and not much done. Thankfully things are on the mend and so not nearly as much of my time will be required. I did find a few minutes this evening to tinker with it and decided that I wasnt going to leave it open after all. Here is what I think Im going to go with. 


It still hasnt been glued together, that will happen tomorrow. Here is a picture with the wheels and guns (I assembled the second). 


And from the back (carefully angling the camera so as not to knock it).


The plan is to add cables ala warp grinders going from the rear of the guns through the holes on the side of the chaise and into the warpstone. ThinkI'm  going to leave the bottom of the stone as is. 

On the front I will be adding some ramming spikes, a top cross beam and spyglasses to allow the drivers to actually see. 

After that I think the individual parts will be ready to paint. I dislike painting, soI'm  trying to decide if I should paint this one first before assembling the second - spread out the pain model. Or should I start the next one and paint the army in much larger batches - the want to kill myself as I paint an entire army model. 

Lastly, any suggestions of what I should add?  I still have a second Iron Daemon to make so suggestions are welcome. 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Post CoC Standings Update


So poor showing, but I guess not so bad considering the stupid list I took.  You’d never think that I used to be the top skaven player in the country and listed as #2 in fantasy and #1 in 40k.  I think that is the best part about RankingsHQ committing US Fantasy suicide.  I just have no reason to care anymore.

Dark Elves – 20w/7l/0d
Ogres – 2w/3l/0d
Skaven – 3w/4l/1d

Singles – 19w/11l/1d
Doubles – 8w/3l/0d

Overall – 25w/14l/1d

And that Portents of Verminous doom didn’t ever make the difference, and was not worth the composition hit.

Next up is QCR, though this posts afterwards.

Monday, July 22, 2013

June CoC – Round 3 – Chris Perriraz - Lizardman



Scenario: Magic Flux

Deployment: Battleline
Special Rules: Wizards worth +50 points and when generating dice, roll them all and if a ‘1’, give to opponent (power and dispel).

The List:

Saurus Oldblood, Carnosaur, shield, burning blade of chotec, glittering scales, dawnstone

Skink Chief, BSB, Ancient Stegadon, stegadon war-spear
Skink Priest, Cube of Darkness

35 Saurus Warriors, full command
35 Saurus Warriors, full command
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers

2 Salamanders
2 Salamanders



After playing two games of rough light magic I was glad to see a list without lots of magic (surprise, he was down with me).  For magic I rolled up Vermintide and Plague on my dispel scroll guy (both great skink clearing spells), bless and wither on my other level two (both good saurus killing spells) and cloud on my level 1 (yay steg and carnosaur?  Well, sort of).  Chris took Ice shard after rolling wind blast.  I thought wind blast would have been great as I only had one real target and it would help him have the time he needed to get his flank.

Chris commented that we should just push it forward, and I pointed out that was all I had.  For deployment he counted every one of my rat darts with a unit of skinks.  I then put my unit off center on the right where he wouldn’t be able to easily tag team me based on where his skinks were.  He put his monsters to follow up and hid his caster behind the impassible.  He also put a flamer on each side.  I held a unit of gutter runners back to assassinate the caster and otherwise put the units on the right side.


We roll off and I get first turn for the third game in a row.  I move up a little, but don’t move into range for plague and so don’t cast.  I shoot the right salamander and he makes all 5 saves for the wounds I do.



On Chris’ turn 1 he charges his salamander into the gutter runners.  He takes a wound on the stand and shoot.  A 3PD/1DD magic phase has him casting ice shard on the rat ogres.  His shooting kills a gutter runner and 1 giant rat.  The salamanders kill 3 rats in shooting on the left and panics the unit.  In combat I do 3 wounds to the salamanders, and he does 2 back resulting in a tie combat.



My turn 2 the giant rats charge the skinks that had moved to shoot the gutter runners.  When the gutter runners also charge he does some fleeing.  After a few other charges I get to kill some skinks and leave my chaff in a fairly good position, even with flanks exposed.  The gutter runners come on the table right next to the wizard, and then take him out in shooting.  I roll a massive 1PD/2DD magic phase (thanks mission!).  I fail fear in the combat, and the gutter runners get run down by the salamander.

Chris’ turn 2 and his steg charges the gutter runners.  They flee.  He redirects into a dart which also flees.  The warriors take the flank of a dart.  His shooting on the left moves to encircle.  His flame takes out 2 of the fleeing gutter runners.  He also puts a wound on a rat ogre and kills some more rats from a fleeing unit.  He then kills some giant rats, leaving 1 rat and a packmaster, which flee away from the saurus.  He holds and I only roll 3 inches, putting me right in front of his unit and between my rat ogres and his unit.

 
My turn 3 and I have a problem.  I can’t get to his saurus warriors for sure.  So I put a dart into the flank of his saurus warriors.  This puts him also chaffing the carnisaur.  It will allow my rat ogres to fight twice as I put them into the skinks.  I now need the rat dark to fail its 7 leadership and run past the rat ogres.  But alas they rally.  Now I need to figure out how to get it out of my way… and I have a solution.  First I roll my magic, a nice 6/3 phase.  I roll 3 dice on wither to draw out his dispel dice, and they do.  I then put 3 into cloud and pray I can roll a 4+ to kill off my unit.  AND I DO!  Skaven killing off its own unit to clear up space for me to get into the saurus warriors.  In combat I demolish the skinks and over run into the saurus warriors.  Then, before he gets to attack I proceed to demolish the warriors, leaving 8 after my attacks.  He does a single wound to my T5 wall and then runs on two chances for snakes.
At this point Chris concedes.  His other unit is chaffed and so his options are to charge just with the characters or risk me getting the charge on my turn as his chaff in the center is gone.  He also gets a text from a girl who wants to meet him for dinner.  Win, 20-0 but not even half a game.