Ok so here's my maul review. I want to be brief but I always end up babbling crap. Basically maul is 2999pts of fluffy WFB ran by Tim Fisher. One of the things that make it interesting is on the Saturday night there is a doubles game and fancy dress. It is billed as a fluffy tournament and most people make the effort to be fluffed up, but after having my 98 glade guard in a folding tree house rejected I am now dubious about the fluff levels.
I did really enjoy it this year, there were a few drop outs which is annoying but there always is (it's usually Gill) I did however prefer it at the Mansfield venue, it just seemed more cosy and more well just more maul really, Tim even said it felt like Sheffield is the home of slaughter and I tend to agree.
The tournament was very well run as usual and there weren't any major disputes or anything. There were scenarios in 2 of the games it up a bit. There were a host of monsters kicking about and surprisingly not that many cannons, I didn't face a single cannon all weekend...(could have taken a treeman :( )
What else? The food in the morning (breakfast for those who don't know) was pretty good. I didn't enjoy the burger at the lunch break on day one though as it was cold and rubbery....shame...and the meal on Saturday night was ruined due to the fact that all the greedy pig gamers went back for second helpings of the buffet before I had even had 1 helping so I was left with chilli and....nothing yeah thats it...just a plate of chilli...so I had to go and buy loads of M&Ms from the vender downstairs.
The trophies were good as they always are with trophies for best in race (a must imo) best fancy dress, best painted army players and judges choice, 1st,2nd,3rd generals, best halloween killer, most bloody halloween killer and best performance with a shit army (or something like that) which I should win every year for taking wood elves but because everyone thinks im an insufferable cunt I can see why I don't get it. It went to some woolly woofter called Mark Wildman, presumably cus if he didn't win something there would be some massive uproar about gay rights. We all got a free turn marker which is nice. Stones bitter was £2.70 a pint and Gareth made some cup cakes which I must point out were very nice, an oreo half on the bottom of the cake...like a 40k base...amazing...it is worth mentioning though that the proceeds from these cakes went straight to Ben Curry sat at hom cackling on his throne of kebab meat and not to charity.
Was nice to have a game of Perudo on the evening to with the usual suspects, that for me is always one of the highlights it was nice to see Annie win the judges choice best army because for me (and obviously Tim) the theme of the chaos gnome army is just perfect for the maul. Steve wren winning best painted army is great too since he's probably the nicest guy in wfb after Ed Morris. Jack Armstrong didn't cheat and bring a load of extra units either so that was a refreshing change.
On the whole I would give this tourney the thumbs up, especially if it's going to be your first tourney as its so so friendly. Cheap hotels nearby (walking distance) great people, cheap beer, good trophies, best in race and full rankings. That ticks all the boxes you need really. I really don't get why it doesnt sell out in a few minutes...maybe it's due to the high pts limit and people not having the models? Who knows but it's a good one. So well done guys, looking forward to the next one but I seriously think straight out timmy comp is the only way forward for scoring lists. Mark them all out of 10 with 10 being fluffy cus there were way too many people giving 5's for everything (myself included) cus I don't want to hurt peoples feelings after they have already been crushed by Wood Elves.
Ok so on to my games... this really is brief, one sentence per game...GO!!!!
1. Mark Borland monster mash chaos army...He walked through me, wardancers killed a big monster after I six dices call of the hunt into its flank. LOST 20-0
2. Zack Martin Tomb Kings...He ran at me, I shot everything to bits, challenged settra with annoyance of nettlings, eventually won the combat, monstoned the wizard to safety. WON 20-0
3. Doubles Me and Dave Pyle v Danny Pegg and J D... Dave is stupid and thought asf cancelled itself out BEFORE it cancelled the great weapon out and after losing 15 executioners to trebs he cascaded and killed 5 more, then his last ten died to silver helms because THEY DONT FUCKING STRIKE FIRST DAVE!!!!! so we put regen on the spearmen using trusty Athel Loren, charged glade guard into the side and 6 diced the number 6 Dark elf spell...that killed the Silver helms, DAnny's comet killed JD general and I shot everything else off cus im awesome and so are wood elves...I wiped Dave's tears from his face as we won and he thanked me for the 20 points after he was laying on the floor in the fetal position after turn 1.
4. Joel Smith Tomb Kings... Blood and glory... I was on -500pts at the start cus I had no banners...RETARD... Casket killed 20 glade guard turn one, then I shot some stuff off. LOST 15-5 (would have been 12-8 if not for B+G fuck up)
5. Matt Hinton...Daemons...As predicted the new daemon book is all about fucking nurgle shit...and this list was filth...I gave it a 4/5 cus I hated it...anyway mass nurgle wall of crap with epidemus or whatever hes called (this is basically a list Gill was running before the new book but now it's actually good) anyway he ambled across the board, I had some good shooting and was about 12-8 up until the 5th turn where I dwellers the great unclean one right off the board...YEAH THATS RIGHT!!!! and I don't give a shit cus thats warhammer and he shouldn't have come into Athel Loren looking for trouble...I dolt Dave Pyle I was gonna dwellers that GUO off the board and I did so there...man of my word. WON 19-1
I finished 11th which is ok for wood elves and got top woody.
There you go...Maul in a nutshell.
Hope you enjoyed it and think i'm even more of a tosser cus I feet off your hatred!
Jay
P.s. I like typos so don't comment on them!!!!!1111one
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Tournament thoughts and events that tickle my fancy
After sadly missing out on a slaughter ticket last night due to being stuck at work I thought I would make a post about the other tourneys I fancy going to next year and why and also what I think of the tournament scene in general. I am really sad to not be attending slaughter as it's is probably my favourite event after meltdown. If they would let me buy 5 tickets for the next 5 years to guarantee me a place then I would.
It does start to get very expensive this tournament lark...4 single player events, 1 doubles event, a team event and a one off for some unusual comp could set you back around £700 for the year on tickets, travel and hotels alone and thats before you even start drinking and betting on dice games...not forgetting the piece of shit miniatures themselves.
The question is....is it worth it? Why do we actually bother? Personally I go to see the other people I have met over the last few years and roll some dice and complain about my luck. If it wasn't for the tournaments then I think I would find it hard to meet up with some of my old chums as we all now live all over the UK. Wfb is a great way to stay in touch and the hobby in general is pretty cheap when you compare it to a season ticket at Arsenal or a shit tone of cocaine. People can have a bad experience at a tournament by ending up playing against 3 or 4 really gamey horrible players...I have been a bit gamey in the past but generally I do it because I get sick of power players walking all over me and you have to make a stand sometimes...I have also taken 4 Treemen and 66 Eternal Guard which didn't end as badly as I thought it would. Don't let the thought of playing against good players put you off though 80% of the players are usually really decent blokes and 30% of those guys are absolute legends who you would let your missus give a crafty hand shank. My main advice if you are going for the first time is to pick something reasonably local and with a comp pack that looks friendly or punishes players who take filth. Pick one that will have 50 players or more an one that has best in race awards then there's always something to play for even if you take Wood Elves or Beastmen. Get on twitter and start talking about the event to people, you might find someone to share a hotel or car with.
The minimum 4 that I fancy going to in 2014 are as follows:
AGOM Stockport
Merseyside Meltdown Liverpool
The Maul Sheffield
Tides of Chaos Reading
Anyway first up is AGOM (a gathering of might) I was unsure whether to give this one a try out what with Slaughter just round the corner and possibly meltdown around the same time. What I LOVE LOVE LOVE about this tournament is that for a mere £30-£35 you get 20 dice and 1 large turn dice which you have to use throughout the event which stops people using bent dice and stops people using infamous dice that roll a high % of sixes (yes I'm talking about Applefords gay pink dice) I also like the idea of it only being 1500pts as that means there is more space on the board and it can be more tactical especially with the scenarios.
Mersey Meltdown I would love to go to again, the comp was excellent with certain units adding a bonus to our TP for the end of the weekend. It's held at the best venue out of all the tournaments I've been to (Adelphi hotel Liverpool) as it's so conveniently located and you can have a banging night out and still walk home. It's very smoothly run and the atmosphere was the most friendly I have experienced so far.
The Maul I try to go to every year as it's 2999pts and gives you a good opportunity to fit all the models you own on the table along with the opportunity to fit loads of monsters in if you wish. I love the doubles game on the Saturday night and I love the fancy dress Idea. Games can be a bit long with the points limit being so high but the fact it's run so well helps to keep the game times in check. It's a shame they got rid of the dirty dozen and fluffy dozen idea though, this was where players voted for the lists they thought were the most filthy and the lists they thought were the most fluffy, then in game one these people played off against eachother. It has been replaced this year with each player marking their opponent a score of 1-5 based on how filthy you think their army may be. The tournament is meant to be a good spirited game with people taking "friendly" lists, I took fluff last year so have gone for semi filth this year.
Tides of Chaos was so well run last year and in such a good convenient location that there is no way I will miss it this time round, the comp was good for all races and I honestly think this is one of the best tournaments on the scene. Very friendly but yet still competitive with some great lists. This is an underrated tournament and I really hope it sells out this year and stays strong.
They are the 4 main tournaments for me this year, I will probably go to another 2-4 based on what my friends are going to and based on the comp for Wood Elves. The other ones I fancy are Downfall as it's late in the year compared to the others I want to go to, Clash of Swords because I really wanted to go this year but missed out due to family stuff and felt a bit sad not to have been to a Cardiff event since stormydd tan. I would consider the EDGT if they managed to get 60 players, it's a tough decision though as it's so far away and I don't want to go all the way up there just to end up playing gamey bastards like Gill, Sweeting, Pash, Peckdog and John "shit in my kilt" Pugh. Blood and Glory and Winter incursion would be contenders as I haven't been to them but I heard great things about them. I don't fancy SCGT very much purely for the fact that I think 80 players is about the limit for me in a geeky games room and it's too far for my northern mates to travel, however I have heard great things about it so won't rule it. Finally I would love to get in one or two doubles/team tournaments but I really have no clue which are the best so if anyone wants to give me a push in the right direction I'd be grateful for that.
That's it...this was meant to be a 5 minute post listing my favourite events...I got carried away.
Jay
It does start to get very expensive this tournament lark...4 single player events, 1 doubles event, a team event and a one off for some unusual comp could set you back around £700 for the year on tickets, travel and hotels alone and thats before you even start drinking and betting on dice games...not forgetting the piece of shit miniatures themselves.
The question is....is it worth it? Why do we actually bother? Personally I go to see the other people I have met over the last few years and roll some dice and complain about my luck. If it wasn't for the tournaments then I think I would find it hard to meet up with some of my old chums as we all now live all over the UK. Wfb is a great way to stay in touch and the hobby in general is pretty cheap when you compare it to a season ticket at Arsenal or a shit tone of cocaine. People can have a bad experience at a tournament by ending up playing against 3 or 4 really gamey horrible players...I have been a bit gamey in the past but generally I do it because I get sick of power players walking all over me and you have to make a stand sometimes...I have also taken 4 Treemen and 66 Eternal Guard which didn't end as badly as I thought it would. Don't let the thought of playing against good players put you off though 80% of the players are usually really decent blokes and 30% of those guys are absolute legends who you would let your missus give a crafty hand shank. My main advice if you are going for the first time is to pick something reasonably local and with a comp pack that looks friendly or punishes players who take filth. Pick one that will have 50 players or more an one that has best in race awards then there's always something to play for even if you take Wood Elves or Beastmen. Get on twitter and start talking about the event to people, you might find someone to share a hotel or car with.
The minimum 4 that I fancy going to in 2014 are as follows:
AGOM Stockport
Merseyside Meltdown Liverpool
The Maul Sheffield
Tides of Chaos Reading
Anyway first up is AGOM (a gathering of might) I was unsure whether to give this one a try out what with Slaughter just round the corner and possibly meltdown around the same time. What I LOVE LOVE LOVE about this tournament is that for a mere £30-£35 you get 20 dice and 1 large turn dice which you have to use throughout the event which stops people using bent dice and stops people using infamous dice that roll a high % of sixes (yes I'm talking about Applefords gay pink dice) I also like the idea of it only being 1500pts as that means there is more space on the board and it can be more tactical especially with the scenarios.
Mersey Meltdown I would love to go to again, the comp was excellent with certain units adding a bonus to our TP for the end of the weekend. It's held at the best venue out of all the tournaments I've been to (Adelphi hotel Liverpool) as it's so conveniently located and you can have a banging night out and still walk home. It's very smoothly run and the atmosphere was the most friendly I have experienced so far.
The Maul I try to go to every year as it's 2999pts and gives you a good opportunity to fit all the models you own on the table along with the opportunity to fit loads of monsters in if you wish. I love the doubles game on the Saturday night and I love the fancy dress Idea. Games can be a bit long with the points limit being so high but the fact it's run so well helps to keep the game times in check. It's a shame they got rid of the dirty dozen and fluffy dozen idea though, this was where players voted for the lists they thought were the most filthy and the lists they thought were the most fluffy, then in game one these people played off against eachother. It has been replaced this year with each player marking their opponent a score of 1-5 based on how filthy you think their army may be. The tournament is meant to be a good spirited game with people taking "friendly" lists, I took fluff last year so have gone for semi filth this year.
Tides of Chaos was so well run last year and in such a good convenient location that there is no way I will miss it this time round, the comp was good for all races and I honestly think this is one of the best tournaments on the scene. Very friendly but yet still competitive with some great lists. This is an underrated tournament and I really hope it sells out this year and stays strong.
They are the 4 main tournaments for me this year, I will probably go to another 2-4 based on what my friends are going to and based on the comp for Wood Elves. The other ones I fancy are Downfall as it's late in the year compared to the others I want to go to, Clash of Swords because I really wanted to go this year but missed out due to family stuff and felt a bit sad not to have been to a Cardiff event since stormydd tan. I would consider the EDGT if they managed to get 60 players, it's a tough decision though as it's so far away and I don't want to go all the way up there just to end up playing gamey bastards like Gill, Sweeting, Pash, Peckdog and John "shit in my kilt" Pugh. Blood and Glory and Winter incursion would be contenders as I haven't been to them but I heard great things about them. I don't fancy SCGT very much purely for the fact that I think 80 players is about the limit for me in a geeky games room and it's too far for my northern mates to travel, however I have heard great things about it so won't rule it. Finally I would love to get in one or two doubles/team tournaments but I really have no clue which are the best so if anyone wants to give me a push in the right direction I'd be grateful for that.
That's it...this was meant to be a 5 minute post listing my favourite events...I got carried away.
Jay
Thursday, 17 October 2013
Maul List
So I had my original list for the maul rejected. That is sad in a way as I just wanted to win with them in a none comped event and I had some pretty good ideas that I just wanted to try. However there are other tournaments more fitting for a list of that magnitude it's just a shame there isn't any other 2999pt tournaments to go to. To be fair i'm pretty proud of myself for being surely the only person to have a Wood Elf list rejected in 8th edition for it being too hard.
Thank god for Timmy Comp!!!
Anyway...moving on to the revised list. I had a look at many things and the 2 lords on Eagles and 4 nobles on eagles seemed like the best option...until I realised I would have to paint 3 more eagles and buy more warhawk riders...that's a real shame because that is a nice list and its not often you can take infinite flyers...so I ended up going with the usual sort of stuff. The core choices in the WE book basically force you to take glade guard because they are so much better than anything else and again I have the models to field them at a tournament of 2999 (with a few unit fillers ofc)
So I have gone for massive massive magic defence since the maul is none comp with regard to magic, so no LOS or anything like that I think it's really important to kill peoples magic phases...in fact just writing this now makes me depressed about the whole thing...fuck's sake... :( I'm going to be going up against stupid lizardmen magic and dark elf magic spam and have all my small units dreaded 13th off the board.
Here's my list anyway. It's open list at the maul so there is no reason not to post this before the tournament.I think the most unusual thing here in this list is the build I have gone for on my General with the Oaken Armour...yeah who takes regen these days when you could have a ward save? Well hes designed to kill blood thirsters, lords on dragons and daemon princes...or anything with flaming attacks.
LORDS - 589pts
Lvl 4 Spellweaver, Life, Wand of Wych Elm, Moonstone - 340pts
Highborn, Great weapon, Annoyance of Nettlings, Oaken Armour, Dragonbane Gem, Other Tricksters Shard, shield - 249pts
HEROES - 654pts
Noble BSB, Asyendis Bane, Hail of Doom Arrow - 130pts
LVL1 Spellsinger, Scroll - 115pts
LVL1 Spellsinger, Feedback Scroll - 140pts
Branchwraith, Cluster of Radiants - 90pts
Noble, Eagle, Dragonhelm, Amatharine Brooch, Biting Blade, light armour, shield - 179pts
CORE - 1224pts
13 Glade Guard, Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard, Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard, musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard, musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard, musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard, musician - 162pts
10 Glade Guard, musician - 126pts
10 Glade Guard, musician - 126pts
Special - 432pts
18 Eternal Guard + musician - 222pts
5 Wardancers - 90pts
3 Warhawk Riders - 120pts
RARE - 100pts
2 Great Eagles - 100pts
KILLER - JASON
TOTAL - 2999pts
Thank god for Timmy Comp!!!
Anyway...moving on to the revised list. I had a look at many things and the 2 lords on Eagles and 4 nobles on eagles seemed like the best option...until I realised I would have to paint 3 more eagles and buy more warhawk riders...that's a real shame because that is a nice list and its not often you can take infinite flyers...so I ended up going with the usual sort of stuff. The core choices in the WE book basically force you to take glade guard because they are so much better than anything else and again I have the models to field them at a tournament of 2999 (with a few unit fillers ofc)
So I have gone for massive massive magic defence since the maul is none comp with regard to magic, so no LOS or anything like that I think it's really important to kill peoples magic phases...in fact just writing this now makes me depressed about the whole thing...fuck's sake... :( I'm going to be going up against stupid lizardmen magic and dark elf magic spam and have all my small units dreaded 13th off the board.
Here's my list anyway. It's open list at the maul so there is no reason not to post this before the tournament.I think the most unusual thing here in this list is the build I have gone for on my General with the Oaken Armour...yeah who takes regen these days when you could have a ward save? Well hes designed to kill blood thirsters, lords on dragons and daemon princes...or anything with flaming attacks.
LORDS - 589pts
Lvl 4 Spellweaver, Life, Wand of Wych Elm, Moonstone - 340pts
Highborn, Great weapon, Annoyance of Nettlings, Oaken Armour, Dragonbane Gem, Other Tricksters Shard, shield - 249pts
HEROES - 654pts
Noble BSB, Asyendis Bane, Hail of Doom Arrow - 130pts
LVL1 Spellsinger, Scroll - 115pts
LVL1 Spellsinger, Feedback Scroll - 140pts
Branchwraith, Cluster of Radiants - 90pts
Noble, Eagle, Dragonhelm, Amatharine Brooch, Biting Blade, light armour, shield - 179pts
CORE - 1224pts
13 Glade Guard, Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard, Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard, musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard, musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard, musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard, musician - 162pts
10 Glade Guard, musician - 126pts
10 Glade Guard, musician - 126pts
Special - 432pts
18 Eternal Guard + musician - 222pts
5 Wardancers - 90pts
3 Warhawk Riders - 120pts
RARE - 100pts
2 Great Eagles - 100pts
KILLER - JASON
TOTAL - 2999pts
Thursday, 10 October 2013
Maul - Dark Elves - New Woody book thoughts
Lists will change with the release of the new Dark Elves, we don't need the flaming banner against hydras anymore and the pendant is gone. However imo the couldron is better as it can be put into units. The Dark Elves now have access to all the magic lores and ASF which is awesome because the elves learned their magic before they split up and had civil wars according to the fluff (didn't they?) so that means wood elves might soon have access to more lores and ASF on the elf units. I would pretty much bet my life on Glade Guard getting the armour piercing special rule :D and I can guarantee that Eternal Guard will soon be the best unit in warhammer (cus I own 50 of the metal ones) with 2 attacks and lots of ranks and asf they will be piff to fuck.
With Sheffield Maul just around the corner today I will be submitting my list. It's as filthy as I think I can make a Wood Elf list but to be quite honest, why the hell not? I mean the filthiest WE list in the entire world will still only be the same power scale as the fluffiest empire list you could imagine. I will post my list up later after I have decided what to drop out of it and had a look to see if I have enough GG to actually create the list in the first place. The maul is going to be ranked thankfully. I know a lot of people want it to be unranked but at the end of the day people do like to have the games ranked, I wouldn't go to a tournament if it wasn't ranked because as much as I like playing for fun I also really like to be in a league table of hundreds of players, to me that makes it feel like more of a game than just a hobby.
I havn't had a game of wfb since tides of chaos...but I can't wait to meet up with everyone and have a few beers and roll some dice...better get painting these warhawk riders...ffs.
Jay
With Sheffield Maul just around the corner today I will be submitting my list. It's as filthy as I think I can make a Wood Elf list but to be quite honest, why the hell not? I mean the filthiest WE list in the entire world will still only be the same power scale as the fluffiest empire list you could imagine. I will post my list up later after I have decided what to drop out of it and had a look to see if I have enough GG to actually create the list in the first place. The maul is going to be ranked thankfully. I know a lot of people want it to be unranked but at the end of the day people do like to have the games ranked, I wouldn't go to a tournament if it wasn't ranked because as much as I like playing for fun I also really like to be in a league table of hundreds of players, to me that makes it feel like more of a game than just a hobby.
I havn't had a game of wfb since tides of chaos...but I can't wait to meet up with everyone and have a few beers and roll some dice...better get painting these warhawk riders...ffs.
Jay
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
List Development
I have written so many lists recently and although I'm doing pretty well at tournaments I just feel like there is a better list out there with persistent top ten capabilities. I have unfortunately decided to drop the beloved waywatchers due to the fact they can no longer killing blow Elves on eagles. This means that scarvets are going to play havoc again, although I may keep 5 watchers just to deal with scarvets but I'm definitely not taking 18 watchers again :P in their place I am going to spam loads of dryads...and wait for it........a unit of warhawk riders! I picked them up off ebay for £12 for 3 of them unpainted so it would be rude not to use them, I am also considering putting back in 20 Etarnal guard because I really miss using those models sat on my shelf looking at me saying "please finish painting us" also I am the worlds highest ranked wood elf player so I have nothing to prove anymore...so I can just start taking stupid lists and getting beat again.
I need to start enjoying painting again... my life and everything around me feels messy at the moment, I seem to be getting no time to myself and I really want those lazy afternoons of painting back.
I have put a few new heroes in my list, one of them is going to carry the Lodestone so that both my lvl 4 and my general can have a 2/3+ ward against death snipe wankers. I like using beasts at the moment but I feel miss using life as dwellers is so so so powerful. I am even contemplating the sisters of twilight these days...they are toughness 4 on that eagle you know...and have 3 wounds each! (maybe) That means a Daemon prince can't kill them in a challenge. I want to be the biggest wood elf Wanker in the world!
Anyway I just wanted to get that off my chest.
Jay
I need to start enjoying painting again... my life and everything around me feels messy at the moment, I seem to be getting no time to myself and I really want those lazy afternoons of painting back.
I have put a few new heroes in my list, one of them is going to carry the Lodestone so that both my lvl 4 and my general can have a 2/3+ ward against death snipe wankers. I like using beasts at the moment but I feel miss using life as dwellers is so so so powerful. I am even contemplating the sisters of twilight these days...they are toughness 4 on that eagle you know...and have 3 wounds each! (maybe) That means a Daemon prince can't kill them in a challenge. I want to be the biggest wood elf Wanker in the world!
Anyway I just wanted to get that off my chest.
Jay
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Tides of Chaos
It's been a while since I've made a post but I've not had much opportunity to paint or play of late. So when I saw there was a tournament just 40 minutes away in Reading run by Spiky Club I thought it would be a good idea to jump back into the tournament scene, write a new list, take a few chances and try to get a decent finish. TOC was billed as an 80 player tournament and although I hadn't been to a Spiky event before but I knew Borland and Perriss were going so I knew I'd have at least two people to talk to :P
The Event
Overall the event was very well run, in a great location and had plenty of space to move around in the venue. The food was simple and effective with players having a choice of baguettes with a selection of dips and salads and all that jazz. The bar was opened at 11am on Saturday and 12 on the Sunday. Opening the bar on the Sunday was a bit of a pain as me and Matt P were gagging for something to drink, in the end resorting to the rest of a bottle of red wine Matt had shared with some bird the night before :D The draws were up quickly which was great, there were a few problems with the draws mainly that players drew the same opponents on more than one occasion but these glitches were quickly rectified. There were very few rules disputes but from my experience Andy dealt with them fine. The prizes were fine although I always like to see trophies for best in race rather than certificates. Overall it was one of the better tournaments I have been too, well organized, efficient and with a nice comp pack. Well done guys!
My List
I had been taking a fair few different lists to the last tournaments I went to and with my 23/82 at slaughter I really felt like I could get a decent finish at a competitive tournament, I had finished 7th at Maul last year and that had been my best result to date but I do think that being in the fluffy dozen there had helped me win my first two games.
My lists had been a mix of forest spirits and glade guard but for this one I decided to make loads of changes. I dropped life in favour of beasts, I dropped the dryads in favour of a noble on an eagle, dropped my branchwraith (which I absolutely swear by) in favour of another noble on an eagle and I dropped the treeman for more waywatchers. Dealing with the large amount of armour in the warhammer world these days has become a chore to say the least but I felt with the nobles on eagles packing a great weapon on one and the biting blade on the other along with the bow of loren/arcane bodkins lord, beasts magic and waywatchers I could really cause some damage to warriors lists.
Games Overview
I won't go into a great deal of depth with regard to the games just a brief overview.
Game 1 - Matt Watkinson (Orcs n Goblins)
I don't know what it is about ONG but I have terrible trouble beating them, the mix of artillery and hordes is a real ball ache for me. I was greated by 2 doom divers, 2 rock lobbers, a horde of savage orc big uns with bows and all the usual chaff. I struggled so much running around all over the board trying to kill things yet avoid the savages. I shot off 8 trolls and killed some war machines with my eagle nobles but Matt took off a large amount of my units with doom divers alone and the 2d6 str 3 hits spell. Taking off the waywatchers an eagle noble, some glade guard but fortunately not my general. He managed to get my lvl 4 when I failed to dispel hand of gork and he caught up with his unit. Good game really but I missed that extra dispel dice and the wand of wych elm that I normally have. I don't think it helped that from 11am Matt Perriss was bringing drink after drink over and mine were racking up faster than I could drink them. Lost 14-6
Game 2 - Mark Saunders (High Elves)
I'm 99% sure I played mark in game 2 and it was the first time I had played against the High Elves with their new book. He had 2 Phoenix, 30 White Lions (eurgh) 45 Spearmen and 2 small units of swordmasters (which for the first time my noble on eagle would be going fist against) The game went ok with me shooting off some reavers and killing the swordmasters with my Eagle noble. I killed both Pheonix one with shooting and the other with the amber spear :D and I cursed the spearmen so they couldn't advance very quickly. I redirected the White Lions for most of the game and feed them my chaff. I could have won with a greater margin but after shooting the 40+ spearmen off the board my 9 waywatchers couldn't kill the remaining 2 characters that were stood in the open all alone. I lost Waywatchers to magic and one of my eagle nobles also to magic. I really enjoyed playing mark he was a true gent and we had a good laugh about his bad dice dice rolling 4/5 sixes for his saves (the bastard) along with discussing the ins and outs of the new HE book Won 15-5
Game 3 - Jon Mcgough (Ogre Kingdoms)
It just goes to show how quickly things change in the world of WFB because I actually want to play ogres these days but 2 years ago when they just came out (was it 2? feels longer) I felt like I could do nothing against mournfang, yet these days you don't see may mournfang really. He had a gutstar, 2 units of man eaters, 2 ironblasters (yes thats right 2) and some other chaffy stuff. I like Jon hes a good bloke, nice to play against and generally sound. So this game went really well for me, I shot off the gutstar, his characters had no armour saves and the general only a 4+ ward so they all got shot off too, I killed a unit of maneates with my 3+ward against none magical attacks noble, I killed an iron blaster in the last turn in combat with 13 glade guard after he had flanked my bunker with it...and I took the final wound of the other ironblaster with 5 waywatchers (it lost 3 to flock of doom and 1 to shooting before that) Really good game for me this one.
Won 16-4
Game 4 - Warren Brewster (lizardmen)
Well I showed up on Sunday morning with a horrific hangover and saw I was up against double slann lizardmen and nearly cried. Lvl 4 on death and a Lvl 4 on metal (not so bad really) 2 Scar Vets, loads of chaff and some Temple Guard and Saurus. I won the first turn and kicked off with lots of shooting onto the skinks, clearing loads of them away, a lucky roll on the flock of doom saw me kill 8/10 skinks hiding behind a wood. The Eagle Nobles flew around picking up chaff units left right and centre throughout the game. In turn 2 though... Warren moved the death slaan within 24" of my lvl and smashed out loads of dath snipes on whim...I dispelled them and scrolled one in the hope I could kill this presumably ethereal Slaan in turn 3. Now Warren admitted he had no knowledge of what the Wood Elf army could do and this was obvious as he moved the slaan forward presuming I had no magical attacks...I did tell him I could take magic bows and magic arrows not to mention the amber spear but he fancied his chances anyway. Turn 3 and I amber spear his Slaan but he dispel scrolls it...I savage beasts of horros my lord and he lets it go...I then proceed to take 2 wounds off the Death Slaan with the bow of loren to which Warren says "that was close I could of lost him there" yeah...."hail of doom" and that was the end of the death slaan...I gave him the usual runaround after this and cleaned up as much as I could. Warren's lack of WE knowledge cost him the game and we discussed what he would do differently next time, he was a nice lad and was happy enough with his game apart from the Slaan mistake. He had also lost 2 Scar Vets to killing blow on the Waywatchers, he knew they had KB but risked the charges anyway. Unlucky. Nice guy, great game.
Won 16-4
Game 5 - Tim Bohknecht (Lizardmen)
Another Lizardmen army!!! FFS I took anti armour lists expecting to face Ogres and Warriors all weekend and in reality my old list would have been far superior against the matchups I had this weekend. This time it was a lord on carnosaur 2x40 saurus, 1x20 Saurus and a few units of chaff. My free forest was a fucking D6 str 4 hits forest! (important later) So basically my plan was to curse the big unit with his 2 Scar vets in and shoot off the other one, I also wanted to kill the carnasaur but wasnt bothered about killing the lord on top, once he was down to M4 I would be safe. This is exactly what happened basically but not as you would expect...the carnosau had 2 wounds left and it charged my eagle that was there to redirect it...2 5s followed by 2 6's and the eagle killed the carnosaur, the general drops into the large cursed unit and is moving 4 a turn for the rest of teh game. I fed him some cheap units and he managed to kill a lot of my stuff using the lore of heavens, really hurting my flyers...right at the end though a Salamander moves into my free wood to shoot my generals unit in order to make it panic and run off the board...at the end of the movement phase the salamander takes 6 str 4 hits and dies (it only had 1 wound left anyway) but he agreess this is game and we call it on turn 5 adding up the VP.s Genuinely nice guy and another fun game.
Won 12-8
Game 6 - Tom Uden (Dark Elves)
By Games 6 I was completely pissed off my face after Matt Perriss kept racking pints up in front of me, I was going to the toilet every 5 minutes and couldn't think straight at all. Tom had Double Hydra lots of Corsairs :( a bunker of spearmen, a 2 heroes on pegs and 2 units shades and crossbowmen. His genral was a lvl 4 on death. This was an interesting game to say the least. I shot off both Hydras using the flaming banner and then the second one went down to flock of doom and the hail of doom. He was taking my units out left right and centre with withering and shooting though, I managed to take the hits and reply by lessening his shooting. I killed one peg with killing blow (yes we both realised after that's no longer allowed with the new faq) however the arcane bodkins lord was about to fire 7 shots into him and he had 1 wound left so we agreed it probably wouldn't have changed the outcome. I Moonstoned over to the flank of his lvl 4 and got ready to charge + savage beasts next turn with all my characters in one unit...I didn't need to in the end because in turn 5 he cascaded his lvl 4 after Tom Richards showed up to see how I was getting on and cursed udens dice (thanks tom) So I just shot the rest of them off and all of a sudden the game swung massively in my favour. Waywatchers vs Shades was fun with the Waywatchers winning out in the end.
Was lovely to play again Tom and we had a nice match which at one point it really ooked like he would do me over.
Won - 15-5
Summary
Overall I enjoyed every single game and met some really nice people, only had one dispute which was quickly resolved...the only thing that could have ruined it was Matt Perriss feeding me alcohol like a true gent :p I tried to wind Mark Borland up about Wood Elves in a bid to get him to bring them out to play again but he was having none of it. He's a monster mash man nowadays. I reckon no 1 can win a tournament without some luck and in the same respect you cant win one with only luck. I had some luck but I played really well in nearly every game. I fucked up in game one saving dispell dice for foot of gork and letting hand go...Hand is a far superior spell and I really am angry with myself there cus if I hadn't lost those 600pts in the last turn then I would have been in the top 3 at this tournament. FUCK. oh well I wanted top 20 and I got top 10.
You can see all the results here:
http://warhammer.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=115646
Cheers
Jay
The Event
Overall the event was very well run, in a great location and had plenty of space to move around in the venue. The food was simple and effective with players having a choice of baguettes with a selection of dips and salads and all that jazz. The bar was opened at 11am on Saturday and 12 on the Sunday. Opening the bar on the Sunday was a bit of a pain as me and Matt P were gagging for something to drink, in the end resorting to the rest of a bottle of red wine Matt had shared with some bird the night before :D The draws were up quickly which was great, there were a few problems with the draws mainly that players drew the same opponents on more than one occasion but these glitches were quickly rectified. There were very few rules disputes but from my experience Andy dealt with them fine. The prizes were fine although I always like to see trophies for best in race rather than certificates. Overall it was one of the better tournaments I have been too, well organized, efficient and with a nice comp pack. Well done guys!
My List
I had been taking a fair few different lists to the last tournaments I went to and with my 23/82 at slaughter I really felt like I could get a decent finish at a competitive tournament, I had finished 7th at Maul last year and that had been my best result to date but I do think that being in the fluffy dozen there had helped me win my first two games.
My lists had been a mix of forest spirits and glade guard but for this one I decided to make loads of changes. I dropped life in favour of beasts, I dropped the dryads in favour of a noble on an eagle, dropped my branchwraith (which I absolutely swear by) in favour of another noble on an eagle and I dropped the treeman for more waywatchers. Dealing with the large amount of armour in the warhammer world these days has become a chore to say the least but I felt with the nobles on eagles packing a great weapon on one and the biting blade on the other along with the bow of loren/arcane bodkins lord, beasts magic and waywatchers I could really cause some damage to warriors lists.
Games Overview
I won't go into a great deal of depth with regard to the games just a brief overview.
Game 1 - Matt Watkinson (Orcs n Goblins)
I don't know what it is about ONG but I have terrible trouble beating them, the mix of artillery and hordes is a real ball ache for me. I was greated by 2 doom divers, 2 rock lobbers, a horde of savage orc big uns with bows and all the usual chaff. I struggled so much running around all over the board trying to kill things yet avoid the savages. I shot off 8 trolls and killed some war machines with my eagle nobles but Matt took off a large amount of my units with doom divers alone and the 2d6 str 3 hits spell. Taking off the waywatchers an eagle noble, some glade guard but fortunately not my general. He managed to get my lvl 4 when I failed to dispel hand of gork and he caught up with his unit. Good game really but I missed that extra dispel dice and the wand of wych elm that I normally have. I don't think it helped that from 11am Matt Perriss was bringing drink after drink over and mine were racking up faster than I could drink them. Lost 14-6
Game 2 - Mark Saunders (High Elves)
I'm 99% sure I played mark in game 2 and it was the first time I had played against the High Elves with their new book. He had 2 Phoenix, 30 White Lions (eurgh) 45 Spearmen and 2 small units of swordmasters (which for the first time my noble on eagle would be going fist against) The game went ok with me shooting off some reavers and killing the swordmasters with my Eagle noble. I killed both Pheonix one with shooting and the other with the amber spear :D and I cursed the spearmen so they couldn't advance very quickly. I redirected the White Lions for most of the game and feed them my chaff. I could have won with a greater margin but after shooting the 40+ spearmen off the board my 9 waywatchers couldn't kill the remaining 2 characters that were stood in the open all alone. I lost Waywatchers to magic and one of my eagle nobles also to magic. I really enjoyed playing mark he was a true gent and we had a good laugh about his bad dice dice rolling 4/5 sixes for his saves (the bastard) along with discussing the ins and outs of the new HE book Won 15-5
Game 3 - Jon Mcgough (Ogre Kingdoms)
It just goes to show how quickly things change in the world of WFB because I actually want to play ogres these days but 2 years ago when they just came out (was it 2? feels longer) I felt like I could do nothing against mournfang, yet these days you don't see may mournfang really. He had a gutstar, 2 units of man eaters, 2 ironblasters (yes thats right 2) and some other chaffy stuff. I like Jon hes a good bloke, nice to play against and generally sound. So this game went really well for me, I shot off the gutstar, his characters had no armour saves and the general only a 4+ ward so they all got shot off too, I killed a unit of maneates with my 3+ward against none magical attacks noble, I killed an iron blaster in the last turn in combat with 13 glade guard after he had flanked my bunker with it...and I took the final wound of the other ironblaster with 5 waywatchers (it lost 3 to flock of doom and 1 to shooting before that) Really good game for me this one.
Won 16-4
Game 4 - Warren Brewster (lizardmen)
Well I showed up on Sunday morning with a horrific hangover and saw I was up against double slann lizardmen and nearly cried. Lvl 4 on death and a Lvl 4 on metal (not so bad really) 2 Scar Vets, loads of chaff and some Temple Guard and Saurus. I won the first turn and kicked off with lots of shooting onto the skinks, clearing loads of them away, a lucky roll on the flock of doom saw me kill 8/10 skinks hiding behind a wood. The Eagle Nobles flew around picking up chaff units left right and centre throughout the game. In turn 2 though... Warren moved the death slaan within 24" of my lvl and smashed out loads of dath snipes on whim...I dispelled them and scrolled one in the hope I could kill this presumably ethereal Slaan in turn 3. Now Warren admitted he had no knowledge of what the Wood Elf army could do and this was obvious as he moved the slaan forward presuming I had no magical attacks...I did tell him I could take magic bows and magic arrows not to mention the amber spear but he fancied his chances anyway. Turn 3 and I amber spear his Slaan but he dispel scrolls it...I savage beasts of horros my lord and he lets it go...I then proceed to take 2 wounds off the Death Slaan with the bow of loren to which Warren says "that was close I could of lost him there" yeah...."hail of doom" and that was the end of the death slaan...I gave him the usual runaround after this and cleaned up as much as I could. Warren's lack of WE knowledge cost him the game and we discussed what he would do differently next time, he was a nice lad and was happy enough with his game apart from the Slaan mistake. He had also lost 2 Scar Vets to killing blow on the Waywatchers, he knew they had KB but risked the charges anyway. Unlucky. Nice guy, great game.
Won 16-4
Game 5 - Tim Bohknecht (Lizardmen)
Another Lizardmen army!!! FFS I took anti armour lists expecting to face Ogres and Warriors all weekend and in reality my old list would have been far superior against the matchups I had this weekend. This time it was a lord on carnosaur 2x40 saurus, 1x20 Saurus and a few units of chaff. My free forest was a fucking D6 str 4 hits forest! (important later) So basically my plan was to curse the big unit with his 2 Scar vets in and shoot off the other one, I also wanted to kill the carnasaur but wasnt bothered about killing the lord on top, once he was down to M4 I would be safe. This is exactly what happened basically but not as you would expect...the carnosau had 2 wounds left and it charged my eagle that was there to redirect it...2 5s followed by 2 6's and the eagle killed the carnosaur, the general drops into the large cursed unit and is moving 4 a turn for the rest of teh game. I fed him some cheap units and he managed to kill a lot of my stuff using the lore of heavens, really hurting my flyers...right at the end though a Salamander moves into my free wood to shoot my generals unit in order to make it panic and run off the board...at the end of the movement phase the salamander takes 6 str 4 hits and dies (it only had 1 wound left anyway) but he agreess this is game and we call it on turn 5 adding up the VP.s Genuinely nice guy and another fun game.
Won 12-8
Game 6 - Tom Uden (Dark Elves)
By Games 6 I was completely pissed off my face after Matt Perriss kept racking pints up in front of me, I was going to the toilet every 5 minutes and couldn't think straight at all. Tom had Double Hydra lots of Corsairs :( a bunker of spearmen, a 2 heroes on pegs and 2 units shades and crossbowmen. His genral was a lvl 4 on death. This was an interesting game to say the least. I shot off both Hydras using the flaming banner and then the second one went down to flock of doom and the hail of doom. He was taking my units out left right and centre with withering and shooting though, I managed to take the hits and reply by lessening his shooting. I killed one peg with killing blow (yes we both realised after that's no longer allowed with the new faq) however the arcane bodkins lord was about to fire 7 shots into him and he had 1 wound left so we agreed it probably wouldn't have changed the outcome. I Moonstoned over to the flank of his lvl 4 and got ready to charge + savage beasts next turn with all my characters in one unit...I didn't need to in the end because in turn 5 he cascaded his lvl 4 after Tom Richards showed up to see how I was getting on and cursed udens dice (thanks tom) So I just shot the rest of them off and all of a sudden the game swung massively in my favour. Waywatchers vs Shades was fun with the Waywatchers winning out in the end.
Was lovely to play again Tom and we had a nice match which at one point it really ooked like he would do me over.
Won - 15-5
Summary
Overall I enjoyed every single game and met some really nice people, only had one dispute which was quickly resolved...the only thing that could have ruined it was Matt Perriss feeding me alcohol like a true gent :p I tried to wind Mark Borland up about Wood Elves in a bid to get him to bring them out to play again but he was having none of it. He's a monster mash man nowadays. I reckon no 1 can win a tournament without some luck and in the same respect you cant win one with only luck. I had some luck but I played really well in nearly every game. I fucked up in game one saving dispell dice for foot of gork and letting hand go...Hand is a far superior spell and I really am angry with myself there cus if I hadn't lost those 600pts in the last turn then I would have been in the top 3 at this tournament. FUCK. oh well I wanted top 20 and I got top 10.
You can see all the results here:
http://warhammer.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=115646
Cheers
Jay
Monday, 18 March 2013
List Writing Blues
Why is it whenever a tournament is just around the corner I decide to change my list and put something in it that means I need to do a crap load of painting?
I am so sick of not being able to deal with armour now that I have gone for a monster mash list for the next tournament. I am going to a one dayer in Welwyn Garden City which is using the SCGT comp and will be a good opportunity to try something new out, I have no real intention of winning and with the list I have written I expect I will be very near the bottom but I just want to see what a lord on an eagle, 2 nobles on eagles and 2-3 Treemen can do between them.
I am tempted to drop the Treeman Ancient and take a lvl 4 on Athel Loren or Beasts and I think that will be the sensible option otherwise I will struggle to dispel anything. I am worried about cannons obviously, it's a real shame cannons are so good and never miss as I would really love to take exciting monster lists. I would have liked to take a load of warhawk riders too but I haven't got time to convert those yet before the tourney. I have a free wood to paint (finally) 3 lords to ride on the eagles and a Treeman which I should get done in time.
I guess I could just take high elves....
I am so sick of not being able to deal with armour now that I have gone for a monster mash list for the next tournament. I am going to a one dayer in Welwyn Garden City which is using the SCGT comp and will be a good opportunity to try something new out, I have no real intention of winning and with the list I have written I expect I will be very near the bottom but I just want to see what a lord on an eagle, 2 nobles on eagles and 2-3 Treemen can do between them.
I am tempted to drop the Treeman Ancient and take a lvl 4 on Athel Loren or Beasts and I think that will be the sensible option otherwise I will struggle to dispel anything. I am worried about cannons obviously, it's a real shame cannons are so good and never miss as I would really love to take exciting monster lists. I would have liked to take a load of warhawk riders too but I haven't got time to convert those yet before the tourney. I have a free wood to paint (finally) 3 lords to ride on the eagles and a Treeman which I should get done in time.
I guess I could just take high elves....
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
Mersey Meltdown Review
Mersey Meltdown is a 2 day 5 game event held at the Adelphi hotel in
Liverpool about 2 mins from the station. It is run by TNG (Terra Nova Gryphons)
and this year hosted 72 players which I think is the maximum they can host.
So before I talk about my list and games I will say that the tournament was run exceptionally well, not a single cock up all weekend, games were finished on time, the results for each round were up quickly and any disputes were settled confidently and quickly. Warriors were uncomped but to be honest I wouldn't have expected TNG to come up with any comp for them in such short notice. There was a curry available on Saturday night which I hadn't paid for so didn't attend, I have had bad experiences eating tournament food resulting in the coveted Sheen Gill "tournament bum". The venue is so conveniently located that there are a million places to go for food and drink nearby.
The trophies and prizes for all the winners were pretty impressive and the winners (copy and pasted from the Mersey thread) can be seen here:
Results
1st Place overall - Fat Craig
2nd Place - Kevin Weaver
3rd Place - Joe McGough
Most Sporting - Steve 'the nicest man in warhammer' Wren
Players Choice Best Army - David Parker
Judges Choice Best Army - 'Dangerous' Dave Pyle
Wooden Spoon - Jodi Chapman
The Michael Biggs Memorial 'Captain Ahab' Award - Luke Rooney
Best in Race
Beastmen - Mark Borland
Bretonnians - Rob Sedgeman
Chaos Dwarfs - Tom Mawdsley
Daemons - Fat Craig
Dark Elves - Ben Curry
Dwarfs - Andy Russell
Empire - Mo Ashraf
High Elves - Pash Korniyenko
Lizardmen - David Parker
Orcs & Goblins - Andy Robinson
Ogres - Joe McGough
Skaven - Ben Johnson
Tomb Kings - Steve Davie
Vampire Counts - Walt Simpson
Warriors - Kev Weaver
Wood Elves - Jay 'Who the f**k are you' Hopkinson....
Now if you look at that last one...bit harsh! bastards, ill definitely be grudging one of those fuckers next time.
Kev Weaver got the most tournament points all weekend with his WoC so they must be completely broken. Dave Pyle and I joined Weaver and his minions for a meal out on the Saturday night and he was confident his BSB with a 3+ ward rerolling 1's would never be killed and also pointed out that if he took the dragonbane gem or helm on him he would be IMMUNE to flaming attacks..2+ ward rerolling 1's...COMP THAT SHIT! No tzeentch model should be able to take the reroll 1 Item. Fair play to Kev though and he came second. BAN KEV WEAVER! Craig Johnson won the tourney which to be honest must mean he has been cheating, I can't think of any other way he could have won and perhaps his dice need checking or something.
All in all I have to say the event was honestly the most fun I've had at a tournament. I had a great night out on the Saturday and everyone was just happy all weekend. Meltdown has given Slaughter a run for its money in my eyes and I reckon mersey just takes the title of best tourney so far.
WELL DONE TNG AND THANKS A LOT.
Ok so the rest of the post is about my army, feelings on comp and my games.
Armies were selected up to 2400pts and there were bonus tournament points available for taking units that are not normally taken, I'm not too sure about the other armies but for Wood Elves they were Glade Riders, Eternal Guard, Warhawk Riders and a lord on a stag. You could get 2pts for the first one taken 4pts for the second, 7 for the 3rd and 10pts if you took all 4. Now although I do think this is a great idea I have to say some armies seemed to get of fairly lightly, dark elves in particular as they could fit all 4 in for less than 500pts I think, whereas for the wood elves you would need to spend around 700pts to get it all in. I think this should be changed particularly for WE since every unit except for glade guard are bad they could have made it a bit easier for us to get the 10 bonus points. And what is the big deal about not letting us keep a bow on our BSB?
My List
LvL 4 Spellweaver, Wand of wych Elm, 305 - pts (Lore of Life)
lvl 1 Spellsinger, Dispel Scroll, Dragonbane Gem - 120pts
Branchwraith, Cluster of radiants - 90pts
Noble BSB, Hail of Doom Arrow Asyendi's Bane. - 130pts
Lords/Heroes - 645 pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
8 Dryads - 96pts
8 Dryads - 96pts
5 Glade Riders + musician - 129pts
Core - 969pts
14 Etermal Guard + musician, Standard of Discipline - 201pts
3 Tree kin + elder - 216pts
Special - 417pts
Great Eagle - 50pts
Great Eagle - 50pts
5 Waywatchers - 120pts
6 Waywatchers - 144pts
Rare - 364pts
TOTAL - 2395
A few problems with my list starting with no flaming banner as I took standard of discipline instead, this was a bit of an oversight but luckily it didn't cost me over the course of the tournament. I don't have anything to deal with all the armour around in WFB now, so so many 1+ armour saves that I think this will be the last time I take lore of life and in the future I suspect I will be running the Arcane Bodkins lord. The Eternal guard I usually take anyway and they proved a good choice once again, the Tree Kin were also good, the Glade Riders were ok. Everything was fine really it's just unfortunate that all the other armies are so much more powerful. On the plus side nobody managed to get very much magic off against me all weekend and I was dispelling on 1 dice a lot of the time with a re-roll.
Game 1 vs Dark Elves (Ben Curry)
I found out I was playing Ben on the Thursday and I actually really fancied my chances. Dark Elves are a good match up for me and I haven't lost to them yet. Ben is a decent player and I fancied a 12-8 to me really. What actually happened was Ben had double hydra and 3 Peg riders with ridiculous armour saves and I could not get through that armour, I deployed one unit of waywatchers too far away from his pegs and this meant I only had 6 to deal with his pegs (mistake 1) I also let his dreadlord charge my bunker (mistake 2) those mistakes cost me the game as his dreadlord took off about 900pts all on his own. Now although I made mistakes I was also unlucky... I killing blowed his dreadlord and he rolled a 1 to save it with pendant, I failed 5 panic tests in 1 turn, losing 2 units of 13 glade guard and another small unit of glade guard that had lost the combat then failed their steadfast roll. I charged a Branchwraith into the flank of the dreadlord that was in combat with my bunker, then throne of vines, flesh to stone on the Branchwraith giving it toughness 8, issued a challenge so my static res was 5 all the branchwraith had to do was hold on...but no...2 wounds on her and she died, I should have put the whole unit in really but I didn't think the dryads could fit through the gap. On the whole I would say the 20-0 to Ben was a harsh for me in that game however I did learn a lot from it and the answer is more waywatchers that don’t get deployed on the flanks. Ben was nice and a pleasure to play and I ended the game in a good mood, he even offered to let me keep the tape measure he lent me, but I declined as I didn't want a permanent reminder of that game :P I would like to play that list again against Ben and see if I could have done better.
Game 2 vs Dark Elves (Hristo)
I was up against Hristo in game 2 which I was pretty happy about, another Dark Elf player straight away to rectify my mistakes. He had a big block of executioners and double hydra. For some strange reason I thought double hydra wasn't allowed at Mersey and that's why I left out the flaming banner, then I got drawn vs 2 double hydra. Anyway I fancied this game even more. Basically I shot off one of the hydras early on, then a unit of crossbowmen, the crossbowmen panicked the other hydra and it was well out of position, Hristo had a lvl 4 on death riding a manticore which I shot off in turn 3, the lord dropped to his feet and joined a unit of executioners....which apparently isn't allowed and we only found out after the game, Hristo offered me the 20-0 win but I didn't take it as I feel it was an honest mistake. I shot off the Executioners and his lvl 4 anyway so it’s likely that it wouldn't have made a difference. Once again I lost units to panic! I literally passed only 2 panic tests in game 1 and 2 combined. Hristo did get a peg into my bunker but with challenges and flesh to stone he didn't manage to break it. in the end I won the game 15-5. Good Game, one of the best I've had and the most sporting vote went to Hristo from me.
Game 3 vs Vampire Counts (Dan Comeau)
Dan had Double Terrorgheist and 17 Crypt Horrors in this list and that was a big worry for me. It shows how things are changing in the game because I used to say VC was an easy win for WE but because VC now have to take 2 Gheists and 2 massive units of Horrors to be able to deal with all the heavy armour and monsterous infantry that in turn means WE can no longer deal with VC as well. If I got a draw out of this game I would be happy. Deployment Deployment Deployment!!! Paul Brown taught me how to deploy properly a long time ago and I played 2 players this weekend that practically gifted me games by deploying badly. All the crypt horrors were on one side of the board which meant my valuable units could go on the other side and I would just feed him one unit at a time until the game ended, I shot a Gheist down to 1 wound and it flew away, I shot off a unit of zombies, 5 units of dogs and dwelleres/shot 7 out of 8 crypt horrors, then ran away. He gaze of nagashed 2 units of glade guard and guess what? thats right...they both panicked off the board, one of them was in LD10 with a reroll range too. In a nutshell It was a bit of a run around and I won 11-9.
Day 2 Game 4 vs Vampire Counts (Dave Barker)
I arrived on Sunday morning, shaking and hung over to hell. I was in no shape to play WFB. The list was almost identical to the VC list I had played the previous day except he had 2 spirit hosts and 3 vargheists and instead of a massive skeleton bunker he had 30+ ghouls. Very similar game to the previous one, but instead of shooting the crypt horrors I put 3 tree kin into the flank of 8 on turn 3...they held out for the entire game and reduced the Crypt Horrors to only 1 wound, which was frustrating but still an over achievement for the tree kin. I also killed the ghouls down to 1 wound!!!!!! 30 shots at close range on the last turn vs the final 5 ghouls and my archers killed only 4...so unlucky there. I also managed to charge his small skeleton bunker and attack both his mages, over 2 turns I took off his lvl 2 but he passed the 4+ wards on his lvl 4 and unfortunately I couldn’t shift him. lost 3 units of glade gaurd to screams and a unit of dryads + branchwraith. In the last turn I charged my glade riders into his terrorghiest and the combat was a draw, this meant he couldn’t charge my bunker in his turn basically ending the game. Dave was a great guy to play against and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 10-10
Game 5 vs Skaven
Again I can't remember the guys name it might have been Rich Commons but then again that could well have been the VC player I forgot about. Anyway he had an Abom, Doom Wheel, Cannon, Furnace, Grey seer, Loads of chaff, Loads of slaves, Gutter Runners, massive unit of storm vermin and to be honest It's nearly impossible to beat Skaven with Wood Elves and looking at the amount of models he had I thought this would be a 20-0 to him. Worse still Steve Wren drew Mark Borland and his Beastmen, I was 12 points ahead of Steve going into the final game and he would probably beat Mark so the Top Wood Elf player award was going to be a close finish, I would need to get 8-9 points I had 4 bonus points and Steve had none so if I hadn’t taken the crap units I would need 13pts to win the trophy.
It came down to deployment again, and he basically deployed everything on one side, I deployed the other side and knowing he was frenzied on the furnace I was confident it would never reach my army and I could redirect it off the board. That's exactly what happened along with me killing his clanrat bunker and grey seer. I took the abom off in turn 2 with no flaming banner, the doom wheel in turn 3 with Tree Kin and that was it. I ran my army away knowing I had a 13-7 win. Steve Wren came over to have a look and he was completely baffled by the skaven advance, as was I.
That's it then... a poor result finishing 40th but I enjoyed it and got top wood elf, the best I could hope for really.
Jay
So before I talk about my list and games I will say that the tournament was run exceptionally well, not a single cock up all weekend, games were finished on time, the results for each round were up quickly and any disputes were settled confidently and quickly. Warriors were uncomped but to be honest I wouldn't have expected TNG to come up with any comp for them in such short notice. There was a curry available on Saturday night which I hadn't paid for so didn't attend, I have had bad experiences eating tournament food resulting in the coveted Sheen Gill "tournament bum". The venue is so conveniently located that there are a million places to go for food and drink nearby.
The trophies and prizes for all the winners were pretty impressive and the winners (copy and pasted from the Mersey thread) can be seen here:
Results
1st Place overall - Fat Craig
2nd Place - Kevin Weaver
3rd Place - Joe McGough
Most Sporting - Steve 'the nicest man in warhammer' Wren
Players Choice Best Army - David Parker
Judges Choice Best Army - 'Dangerous' Dave Pyle
Wooden Spoon - Jodi Chapman
The Michael Biggs Memorial 'Captain Ahab' Award - Luke Rooney
Best in Race
Beastmen - Mark Borland
Bretonnians - Rob Sedgeman
Chaos Dwarfs - Tom Mawdsley
Daemons - Fat Craig
Dark Elves - Ben Curry
Dwarfs - Andy Russell
Empire - Mo Ashraf
High Elves - Pash Korniyenko
Lizardmen - David Parker
Orcs & Goblins - Andy Robinson
Ogres - Joe McGough
Skaven - Ben Johnson
Tomb Kings - Steve Davie
Vampire Counts - Walt Simpson
Warriors - Kev Weaver
Wood Elves - Jay 'Who the f**k are you' Hopkinson....
Now if you look at that last one...bit harsh! bastards, ill definitely be grudging one of those fuckers next time.
Kev Weaver got the most tournament points all weekend with his WoC so they must be completely broken. Dave Pyle and I joined Weaver and his minions for a meal out on the Saturday night and he was confident his BSB with a 3+ ward rerolling 1's would never be killed and also pointed out that if he took the dragonbane gem or helm on him he would be IMMUNE to flaming attacks..2+ ward rerolling 1's...COMP THAT SHIT! No tzeentch model should be able to take the reroll 1 Item. Fair play to Kev though and he came second. BAN KEV WEAVER! Craig Johnson won the tourney which to be honest must mean he has been cheating, I can't think of any other way he could have won and perhaps his dice need checking or something.
All in all I have to say the event was honestly the most fun I've had at a tournament. I had a great night out on the Saturday and everyone was just happy all weekend. Meltdown has given Slaughter a run for its money in my eyes and I reckon mersey just takes the title of best tourney so far.
WELL DONE TNG AND THANKS A LOT.
Ok so the rest of the post is about my army, feelings on comp and my games.
Armies were selected up to 2400pts and there were bonus tournament points available for taking units that are not normally taken, I'm not too sure about the other armies but for Wood Elves they were Glade Riders, Eternal Guard, Warhawk Riders and a lord on a stag. You could get 2pts for the first one taken 4pts for the second, 7 for the 3rd and 10pts if you took all 4. Now although I do think this is a great idea I have to say some armies seemed to get of fairly lightly, dark elves in particular as they could fit all 4 in for less than 500pts I think, whereas for the wood elves you would need to spend around 700pts to get it all in. I think this should be changed particularly for WE since every unit except for glade guard are bad they could have made it a bit easier for us to get the 10 bonus points. And what is the big deal about not letting us keep a bow on our BSB?
My List
LvL 4 Spellweaver, Wand of wych Elm, 305 - pts (Lore of Life)
lvl 1 Spellsinger, Dispel Scroll, Dragonbane Gem - 120pts
Branchwraith, Cluster of radiants - 90pts
Noble BSB, Hail of Doom Arrow Asyendi's Bane. - 130pts
Lords/Heroes - 645 pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
8 Dryads - 96pts
8 Dryads - 96pts
5 Glade Riders + musician - 129pts
Core - 969pts
14 Etermal Guard + musician, Standard of Discipline - 201pts
3 Tree kin + elder - 216pts
Special - 417pts
Great Eagle - 50pts
Great Eagle - 50pts
5 Waywatchers - 120pts
6 Waywatchers - 144pts
Rare - 364pts
TOTAL - 2395
A few problems with my list starting with no flaming banner as I took standard of discipline instead, this was a bit of an oversight but luckily it didn't cost me over the course of the tournament. I don't have anything to deal with all the armour around in WFB now, so so many 1+ armour saves that I think this will be the last time I take lore of life and in the future I suspect I will be running the Arcane Bodkins lord. The Eternal guard I usually take anyway and they proved a good choice once again, the Tree Kin were also good, the Glade Riders were ok. Everything was fine really it's just unfortunate that all the other armies are so much more powerful. On the plus side nobody managed to get very much magic off against me all weekend and I was dispelling on 1 dice a lot of the time with a re-roll.
Game 1 vs Dark Elves (Ben Curry)
I found out I was playing Ben on the Thursday and I actually really fancied my chances. Dark Elves are a good match up for me and I haven't lost to them yet. Ben is a decent player and I fancied a 12-8 to me really. What actually happened was Ben had double hydra and 3 Peg riders with ridiculous armour saves and I could not get through that armour, I deployed one unit of waywatchers too far away from his pegs and this meant I only had 6 to deal with his pegs (mistake 1) I also let his dreadlord charge my bunker (mistake 2) those mistakes cost me the game as his dreadlord took off about 900pts all on his own. Now although I made mistakes I was also unlucky... I killing blowed his dreadlord and he rolled a 1 to save it with pendant, I failed 5 panic tests in 1 turn, losing 2 units of 13 glade guard and another small unit of glade guard that had lost the combat then failed their steadfast roll. I charged a Branchwraith into the flank of the dreadlord that was in combat with my bunker, then throne of vines, flesh to stone on the Branchwraith giving it toughness 8, issued a challenge so my static res was 5 all the branchwraith had to do was hold on...but no...2 wounds on her and she died, I should have put the whole unit in really but I didn't think the dryads could fit through the gap. On the whole I would say the 20-0 to Ben was a harsh for me in that game however I did learn a lot from it and the answer is more waywatchers that don’t get deployed on the flanks. Ben was nice and a pleasure to play and I ended the game in a good mood, he even offered to let me keep the tape measure he lent me, but I declined as I didn't want a permanent reminder of that game :P I would like to play that list again against Ben and see if I could have done better.
Game 2 vs Dark Elves (Hristo)
I was up against Hristo in game 2 which I was pretty happy about, another Dark Elf player straight away to rectify my mistakes. He had a big block of executioners and double hydra. For some strange reason I thought double hydra wasn't allowed at Mersey and that's why I left out the flaming banner, then I got drawn vs 2 double hydra. Anyway I fancied this game even more. Basically I shot off one of the hydras early on, then a unit of crossbowmen, the crossbowmen panicked the other hydra and it was well out of position, Hristo had a lvl 4 on death riding a manticore which I shot off in turn 3, the lord dropped to his feet and joined a unit of executioners....which apparently isn't allowed and we only found out after the game, Hristo offered me the 20-0 win but I didn't take it as I feel it was an honest mistake. I shot off the Executioners and his lvl 4 anyway so it’s likely that it wouldn't have made a difference. Once again I lost units to panic! I literally passed only 2 panic tests in game 1 and 2 combined. Hristo did get a peg into my bunker but with challenges and flesh to stone he didn't manage to break it. in the end I won the game 15-5. Good Game, one of the best I've had and the most sporting vote went to Hristo from me.
Game 3 vs Vampire Counts (Dan Comeau)
Dan had Double Terrorgheist and 17 Crypt Horrors in this list and that was a big worry for me. It shows how things are changing in the game because I used to say VC was an easy win for WE but because VC now have to take 2 Gheists and 2 massive units of Horrors to be able to deal with all the heavy armour and monsterous infantry that in turn means WE can no longer deal with VC as well. If I got a draw out of this game I would be happy. Deployment Deployment Deployment!!! Paul Brown taught me how to deploy properly a long time ago and I played 2 players this weekend that practically gifted me games by deploying badly. All the crypt horrors were on one side of the board which meant my valuable units could go on the other side and I would just feed him one unit at a time until the game ended, I shot a Gheist down to 1 wound and it flew away, I shot off a unit of zombies, 5 units of dogs and dwelleres/shot 7 out of 8 crypt horrors, then ran away. He gaze of nagashed 2 units of glade guard and guess what? thats right...they both panicked off the board, one of them was in LD10 with a reroll range too. In a nutshell It was a bit of a run around and I won 11-9.
Day 2 Game 4 vs Vampire Counts (Dave Barker)
I arrived on Sunday morning, shaking and hung over to hell. I was in no shape to play WFB. The list was almost identical to the VC list I had played the previous day except he had 2 spirit hosts and 3 vargheists and instead of a massive skeleton bunker he had 30+ ghouls. Very similar game to the previous one, but instead of shooting the crypt horrors I put 3 tree kin into the flank of 8 on turn 3...they held out for the entire game and reduced the Crypt Horrors to only 1 wound, which was frustrating but still an over achievement for the tree kin. I also killed the ghouls down to 1 wound!!!!!! 30 shots at close range on the last turn vs the final 5 ghouls and my archers killed only 4...so unlucky there. I also managed to charge his small skeleton bunker and attack both his mages, over 2 turns I took off his lvl 2 but he passed the 4+ wards on his lvl 4 and unfortunately I couldn’t shift him. lost 3 units of glade gaurd to screams and a unit of dryads + branchwraith. In the last turn I charged my glade riders into his terrorghiest and the combat was a draw, this meant he couldn’t charge my bunker in his turn basically ending the game. Dave was a great guy to play against and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 10-10
Game 5 vs Skaven
Again I can't remember the guys name it might have been Rich Commons but then again that could well have been the VC player I forgot about. Anyway he had an Abom, Doom Wheel, Cannon, Furnace, Grey seer, Loads of chaff, Loads of slaves, Gutter Runners, massive unit of storm vermin and to be honest It's nearly impossible to beat Skaven with Wood Elves and looking at the amount of models he had I thought this would be a 20-0 to him. Worse still Steve Wren drew Mark Borland and his Beastmen, I was 12 points ahead of Steve going into the final game and he would probably beat Mark so the Top Wood Elf player award was going to be a close finish, I would need to get 8-9 points I had 4 bonus points and Steve had none so if I hadn’t taken the crap units I would need 13pts to win the trophy.
It came down to deployment again, and he basically deployed everything on one side, I deployed the other side and knowing he was frenzied on the furnace I was confident it would never reach my army and I could redirect it off the board. That's exactly what happened along with me killing his clanrat bunker and grey seer. I took the abom off in turn 2 with no flaming banner, the doom wheel in turn 3 with Tree Kin and that was it. I ran my army away knowing I had a 13-7 win. Steve Wren came over to have a look and he was completely baffled by the skaven advance, as was I.
That's it then... a poor result finishing 40th but I enjoyed it and got top wood elf, the best I could hope for really.
Jay
Monday, 18 February 2013
Serious Wood Elf comp
I thought I would type up my opinions on comp with regard to the forest
dwellers at the moment. Nearly every tournament run at the moment seems to
think it's acceptable to say "Wood Elves - no further
restrictions" but seriously guys that's a bit of a joke isn't it? I
mean you have monsterous cav all over the place and death magic everywhere. I
understand it's hard to comp the wood elves because nobody plays them and
therefore to have someone on your comp comity who knows a reasonable way to
comp them is a tough task but we aren't asking for a new book, just a little
bit to make it worthwhile taking them 100 miles to a tournament. I would
propose the following if I were writing some comp for them.
#1: Spellweavers can take Shadow
Everyone has access to a lot of magic lores and wood elves just have life, beasts and athel loren. There is nothing in these lores to really deal with heavy armour and lets be realistic, if an army that had no armour were to study a magic lore it wouldn't be metal...so shadow fits into the fluff with the elves fighting from within the shadows of the woods and being generally secretive. Eternal guard are practically useless these days (I still always take them) but if they were mindrazored with two attacks each and LD 9 then people would seriously consider it. I'm an an honest person and I will admit that the thought of whithering followed by 90 shots could be a bit worrying but if that’s all you have to worry about from the Wood Elves then it's really not that bad is it, not compared to the filth around at the moment.
#2. Let my BSB keep his bow.
Enough said! Why the hell would anyone say "ooh I know I'm off out for a fight today, I'll leave my bow at home"
#3. Spellsingers to have access to beasts.
All armies have lvl 1 and 2 mages and usually these mages are given access to a couple of lores. Now I understand that Wood Elf lvl 1 mages have access to Athel Loren and 4 lvl 1's on Athel Loren could be potentially devastating...oh wait...no it couldn't. Basically Wood Elf players are either taking a scroll on their lvl 4 or taking a lvl 1 to carry a scroll, so thats a 115pt scroll caddy...not fair. let us have beasts for gods sake!
#4. 5+ ward to be unaffected by magic
Why oh why is the wood elf forest spirit ward save only against mundane attacks? Daemons get it for everything so why can't we?
#5 Steadfast in Forests/Woods
Yeah so in the rulebook you lose steadfast if you are within the presence of a wood...something I think we can all agree that Wood Elves would not be scared of is fucking trees...I mean come on... sort it out!
That’s it... am I asking for too much? Will it break the game? seriously let me know what you think because I have actually got to the point now where I think Wood Elves cannot deal with a tournament scenario...if we take 3 trees to deal with armour then the same armies can cannon those trees off the board. If we take loads of chaff and no monsters then in turn 2 you have one of your units in combat with a unit of movement 6 monsterous cavalry.
Don't even get me started on unicorns...
Jay
#1: Spellweavers can take Shadow
Everyone has access to a lot of magic lores and wood elves just have life, beasts and athel loren. There is nothing in these lores to really deal with heavy armour and lets be realistic, if an army that had no armour were to study a magic lore it wouldn't be metal...so shadow fits into the fluff with the elves fighting from within the shadows of the woods and being generally secretive. Eternal guard are practically useless these days (I still always take them) but if they were mindrazored with two attacks each and LD 9 then people would seriously consider it. I'm an an honest person and I will admit that the thought of whithering followed by 90 shots could be a bit worrying but if that’s all you have to worry about from the Wood Elves then it's really not that bad is it, not compared to the filth around at the moment.
#2. Let my BSB keep his bow.
Enough said! Why the hell would anyone say "ooh I know I'm off out for a fight today, I'll leave my bow at home"
#3. Spellsingers to have access to beasts.
All armies have lvl 1 and 2 mages and usually these mages are given access to a couple of lores. Now I understand that Wood Elf lvl 1 mages have access to Athel Loren and 4 lvl 1's on Athel Loren could be potentially devastating...oh wait...no it couldn't. Basically Wood Elf players are either taking a scroll on their lvl 4 or taking a lvl 1 to carry a scroll, so thats a 115pt scroll caddy...not fair. let us have beasts for gods sake!
#4. 5+ ward to be unaffected by magic
Why oh why is the wood elf forest spirit ward save only against mundane attacks? Daemons get it for everything so why can't we?
#5 Steadfast in Forests/Woods
Yeah so in the rulebook you lose steadfast if you are within the presence of a wood...something I think we can all agree that Wood Elves would not be scared of is fucking trees...I mean come on... sort it out!
That’s it... am I asking for too much? Will it break the game? seriously let me know what you think because I have actually got to the point now where I think Wood Elves cannot deal with a tournament scenario...if we take 3 trees to deal with armour then the same armies can cannon those trees off the board. If we take loads of chaff and no monsters then in turn 2 you have one of your units in combat with a unit of movement 6 monsterous cavalry.
Don't even get me started on unicorns...
Jay
Monday, 11 February 2013
Sheffield Slaughter Review
January 26th brought us Sheffield Slaughter. I went last year and I absolutely loved it even though I was terribly ill and had to be sick during my first game against Annie [something that happens a lot in her games] It's a great tournament one of the best and its up there with midlands, scgt and the incursion series. Held at the Davey's sports venue in Sheffield there is a bar and loads of space to roam around. Located centrally in the country its very accessible allowing players from as far as Scotland to head down. It was a very well run weekend with games finishing on time, the food was decent and the bar was open for as long as there were people willing to buy alcohol. Some of us on who had arrived on the Friday were greeted by about 6" of snow, we had a lot of fun building a snowman and dragging team wales legend Matt Yeo through it, we pretty much bullied the poor guy but he was a good sport. Andrew Lewis had his lip split by a bin lid and then ran off like forest gump only to return about an hour later after wandering around the roundabout shouting "i'm not batman" to the rest of us below. On the Saturday morning there was a huge backlog of bacon sandwiches and
they were ill prepared but that was my only gripe really. The Saturday evening was great and involved around 18 of us all playing perudo for a good few hours that saw Tom Hale lose his rag and smash a glass. On the whole everyone was in great spirits and I personally had the best time at a tournament I have had, it's just a shame Sean Gill, Chris Appleford and Rapey Dave couldn't make it.
The Winners:
Overall - Mark Wildman, Skaven
2nd - Jack Armstrong, Lizardmen
3rd - Will Goodwin, Empire
Painting:
1 - Graham Radden, Empire
2 - Wayne Kemp, Skaven
3 - Dave Grant, Bretonnians
My Result:
23rd and Best Wood Elf General
My List:
Branchwraith, Cluster of Radiants - 90pts
Core - 862pts
8 Dryads - 96pts
8 Dryads - 96pts
13 Glade Guard + musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + musician + Standard Bearer + Banner of Eternal Flame - 184pts
Special - 520pts4 Treekin - 260pts
4 Treekin - 260pts
Rare - 573pts
6 Waywatchers - 144
6 Waywatchers - 144
Treeman - 285
Total - 2495
A massive thank you to Tom Richards @tmrichards for lending me his army as my own is still stuck up in York and I haven't been able to go back up and get it yet. I realized with an hour to go that I hadn't put my list in and I had no army, I messaged a few people begging to borrow their armies, Mark Borland was one of them and he accepted but stated he had no eagles so I wrote a list with no eagles in it then Tom offered me his army...anyway basically I had a Treeman instead of eagles so I figured anything between 50th and 60th would be a reasonable finish. I took the banner of flame because double hydra is allowed at slaughter and I figured I would probably need it.
I have no dispel scroll as with death magic being so rife in the current game I thought more dice and re-rolls to dispel would be much more useful as I could match my opponents 2 dice casts with 2 and a re-roll and if they rolled really low on a cast I could even use less dice and rely on the re-roll. The rest of the list is pretty much the same as I always take, the Tree kin to deal with Skaven, VC and the vast amounts of 1+ and 2+ armour save flying around. Below I give a brief rundown of the games I played.
My Games:
Game 1 Chaos Dwarfs vs Alex Read
I was drawn against CD first game which I was very unhappy about. Kdai, Kdai fireborn 3 war machines and a load of 3+ armour saves on the dwarf warriors, my only saving grace was that he had a lord on a lamassu . My plan was to run around and deny as many points as possible and threaten the lord with the waywatchers aiming for a 15-5 was basically the best I thought I could manage here.
Basically Alex spent the whole game trying to shoot off my waywatchers and Treeman which he eventually did. I managed to shoot off all his hobgoblins, Dwellers went off on a war machine and I killed his kdai with the Hail of Doom by taking 3 wounds off it. The kdai had inflicted 3 wounds on itself after failing a strength test in turn 2. After a close fought game we ended up with a 10-10 draw.
Game 2 Empire vs Will Goodwin
Game two was even more worrying, after my good friend Dave Pyle had also drawn his first game with a similar victory points tally I was hoping to play him but alas I drew Will Goodwin's Empire and his 11 demigryphs 12 inner circle knights (or whatever they are) and a few bits of chaff...oh and 3 cannons. Do I even need to say anything about this game? I lost. Badly. 20-0. I didn't even do anything remotely entertaining or make any funny jokes.
Game 3 Tomb Kings vs Some ELG guy maybe called Dale but not actually the cool dale who moved to Canada?
So the third game was on the near bottom tables, as terrible as it is I have actually forgotten his name but I've met him a few times and I do love all the ELG guys. His list contained 3 war sphinx's which to be fair is yet another shite match up for me, sure TK is a decent match up but with the flaming catapults and the sphinx it was going to be pretty difficult to say the least.
So ELG guy won the first turn and surged (I say surged I mean moved everything 4") towards me. I had deployed with the majority of my combat units on one side and the shooting on the left in the hope of creating an arc of shooting on one side to force him into the corner and whittle him down over time. I deployed the treeman out of catapult range and left him there for the entire game. He did nearly kill the treeman with those weird snakes things that pop up out of the ground and shoot based on the targets initiative (stalkers) I managed to shoot off all the sphinx and even took 3 wounds off one of them with the hail of doom. I then forced him into the corner, dwellers was used on his archer bunker and I shot off the rest. In the end he had a few bits of bad luck and I ran everything away once I realised I had the game in the bag. 19-1 win. All joking aside Dale Bennion was his name and he was a great guy :P
Game 4 Dark Elves vs Ol (og games)
Well what a strange turn of events, I spent the evening chatting, playing perudo and drinking with the Og Games guys and was drawn against Ol for the game in the morning which was set to be a lot of fun as he doesn't really care about gaming too much but we were both doing better than expected. Like most of the Dark Elf players Ol was running the double Hydra and a load of chaff along with a level 4 on a peg.
The game went back and forth a little with me shooting off all the chaff as his Hydras ran towards me, the rest of his army was bunkered up behind a hill. I set up with my Treeman near to his Hydra and my flaming banner in the middle. The game really swung in my favour when I rolled 16 for the Hail of Doom against a Hydra with only 3 wounds left, I killed it and it panicked the other Hydra off the board (I found this a common problem with double monster lists, I often kill one and the monster next to it out of BSB range runs away) With the Hydras out of the way I pressed forward, Killing blowed his Lord (which Ol later realised he could have put in a unit vs bs fire) and controversially Dwellersed off the couldron. I say controversially because I used 5 dice killed it then realised I had 6 dice on the table (one of which was a wound marker for one of my tree kin) we added up again and weren't too sure, I offered to roll to cast the spell agian but Ol said he wasn't really that bothered and just took it off. With 2 more turns I probably would have got it anyway but either way Ol proved why everyone like to play against him and why he is a well like guy in the community, because he really doesn't give a shit about winning or losing. He did concede though so he could go and grab another £8 bottle of Shutter Home Cabernet Sauvignon. 20-0 win.
Game 5 Lizardmen vs Dan Heelan
I had the privilege of playing Dan for all my hard work. Totally gutted, I have never liked Dan really and I don't really know why, I always thought he was a bit of a warhammer snob. I didn't want to play him and I know he is a good player and I fully expect to lose the game. What happened was completely different, I thoroughly enjoyed the game. He had becalming on his Slaan, lots of temple guard and saurus, some scar vets on foot and the usual ton of chaff. I deployed my lvl 4 riiiiiiiight on the right hand side a good 40" away from his Slaan in order to push forward 10" in turn one and 6 dice skills Dwellers, I saw this as my only chance to cast it in the game due to bacalming. I won the first turn and did exactly that, killed 15 out of 30 saurus (well above average) the proceded to shoot the unit down to 6 models. The miscast saw me roll dimensional cascade but my wizard survive. the rest of the game was usual wood elf cat and mouse tactics with me feeding his temple guard units as and when I needed to. I shot off a lot of chaff but the game changing moment was when I used Hail of Doom on the unit of 3 Salamanders, along with the bow shots from the unit I reduced the unit to 1 wound. Dan used regrowth on the unit and they were back up to near full. Completely gutted. Those salamanders proceeded to get Dan the points he needed to draw the game with me, but in fairness we both played well and a draw was a fair result.
As for Dan I couldn't have been more wrong about the guy, an absolute gent to play, a master with the rules, I learned a lot and he was good fun and a great sport complimenting me a number of times on certain decisions and I gave him my best sports vote, it turned out later he had done the same for me. I honestly can't believe I was so wrong about the guy, that's what you get for being judgemental I guess.
Game 6 Dark Elves vs Luke Rooney
I was delighted to be drawn against Dark Elves again for my final game as they aren't a bad match up for the age old defenders of Athel Loren. Luke had supplied all the scenery for the event and was a nice guy.
He was running death magic which I had a really hard time dealing with. He killed my lvl 4 in turn 2 and my BSB in turn 3. I thought the game was over at that point but somehow my desperation push came off, I had shot off most of his chaff and with a volley of arrow fire and Hail of Doom I had also taken out a Hydra, I set up a counter charge for my Treeman which he fell for and I got into combat with the other Hydra using my Tree. I won that combat, the Hydra fled but I didn't catch it. Eventually I got the Tree in again with only 2 wounds left he killed the Hydra. The Tree died next turn but the opening created let me charge his bunker with 8 Dryads and the Branchwraith, between them they killed the lvl 4 and a load of spearmen. Masses of combat ensued with Dryads vs Spearmen, Tree kin vs the Pendant BSB and even Glade Guard vs Repeater Crossbowmen, the outcome was a bloody mess with very little left on the board. Great game and a great last game to have. 10-10
Roundup
So there you go that was Sheffield Slaughter 2013, I will definitely be going again. The next event for me will be the Mersey Meltdown in 3 weeks. I will be taking my wood elves again and anything above a half way finish will again be a great result for the forest dwellers.
Jay
The Winners:
Overall - Mark Wildman, Skaven
2nd - Jack Armstrong, Lizardmen
3rd - Will Goodwin, Empire
Painting:
1 - Graham Radden, Empire
2 - Wayne Kemp, Skaven
3 - Dave Grant, Bretonnians
My Result:
23rd and Best Wood Elf General
My List:
Lords and Heroes - 540pts
Spellweaver LvL 4 (Life) Wand of Wych Elm, dragonbane gem - 310pts
BsB, Asyendi's Bane, Hail of doom, dragonhelm - 140ptsSpellweaver LvL 4 (Life) Wand of Wych Elm, dragonbane gem - 310pts
Core - 862pts
13 Glade Guard + musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + musician + Standard Bearer + Banner of Eternal Flame - 184pts
Special - 520pts4 Treekin - 260pts
4 Treekin - 260pts
Rare - 573pts
6 Waywatchers - 144
6 Waywatchers - 144
Total - 2495
A massive thank you to Tom Richards @tmrichards for lending me his army as my own is still stuck up in York and I haven't been able to go back up and get it yet. I realized with an hour to go that I hadn't put my list in and I had no army, I messaged a few people begging to borrow their armies, Mark Borland was one of them and he accepted but stated he had no eagles so I wrote a list with no eagles in it then Tom offered me his army...anyway basically I had a Treeman instead of eagles so I figured anything between 50th and 60th would be a reasonable finish. I took the banner of flame because double hydra is allowed at slaughter and I figured I would probably need it.
I have no dispel scroll as with death magic being so rife in the current game I thought more dice and re-rolls to dispel would be much more useful as I could match my opponents 2 dice casts with 2 and a re-roll and if they rolled really low on a cast I could even use less dice and rely on the re-roll. The rest of the list is pretty much the same as I always take, the Tree kin to deal with Skaven, VC and the vast amounts of 1+ and 2+ armour save flying around. Below I give a brief rundown of the games I played.
My Games:
Game 1 Chaos Dwarfs vs Alex Read
I was drawn against CD first game which I was very unhappy about. Kdai, Kdai fireborn 3 war machines and a load of 3+ armour saves on the dwarf warriors, my only saving grace was that he had a lord on a lamassu . My plan was to run around and deny as many points as possible and threaten the lord with the waywatchers aiming for a 15-5 was basically the best I thought I could manage here.
Basically Alex spent the whole game trying to shoot off my waywatchers and Treeman which he eventually did. I managed to shoot off all his hobgoblins, Dwellers went off on a war machine and I killed his kdai with the Hail of Doom by taking 3 wounds off it. The kdai had inflicted 3 wounds on itself after failing a strength test in turn 2. After a close fought game we ended up with a 10-10 draw.
Game 2 Empire vs Will Goodwin
Game two was even more worrying, after my good friend Dave Pyle had also drawn his first game with a similar victory points tally I was hoping to play him but alas I drew Will Goodwin's Empire and his 11 demigryphs 12 inner circle knights (or whatever they are) and a few bits of chaff...oh and 3 cannons. Do I even need to say anything about this game? I lost. Badly. 20-0. I didn't even do anything remotely entertaining or make any funny jokes.
Game 3 Tomb Kings vs Some ELG guy maybe called Dale but not actually the cool dale who moved to Canada?
So the third game was on the near bottom tables, as terrible as it is I have actually forgotten his name but I've met him a few times and I do love all the ELG guys. His list contained 3 war sphinx's which to be fair is yet another shite match up for me, sure TK is a decent match up but with the flaming catapults and the sphinx it was going to be pretty difficult to say the least.
So ELG guy won the first turn and surged (I say surged I mean moved everything 4") towards me. I had deployed with the majority of my combat units on one side and the shooting on the left in the hope of creating an arc of shooting on one side to force him into the corner and whittle him down over time. I deployed the treeman out of catapult range and left him there for the entire game. He did nearly kill the treeman with those weird snakes things that pop up out of the ground and shoot based on the targets initiative (stalkers) I managed to shoot off all the sphinx and even took 3 wounds off one of them with the hail of doom. I then forced him into the corner, dwellers was used on his archer bunker and I shot off the rest. In the end he had a few bits of bad luck and I ran everything away once I realised I had the game in the bag. 19-1 win. All joking aside Dale Bennion was his name and he was a great guy :P
Game 4 Dark Elves vs Ol (og games)
Well what a strange turn of events, I spent the evening chatting, playing perudo and drinking with the Og Games guys and was drawn against Ol for the game in the morning which was set to be a lot of fun as he doesn't really care about gaming too much but we were both doing better than expected. Like most of the Dark Elf players Ol was running the double Hydra and a load of chaff along with a level 4 on a peg.
The game went back and forth a little with me shooting off all the chaff as his Hydras ran towards me, the rest of his army was bunkered up behind a hill. I set up with my Treeman near to his Hydra and my flaming banner in the middle. The game really swung in my favour when I rolled 16 for the Hail of Doom against a Hydra with only 3 wounds left, I killed it and it panicked the other Hydra off the board (I found this a common problem with double monster lists, I often kill one and the monster next to it out of BSB range runs away) With the Hydras out of the way I pressed forward, Killing blowed his Lord (which Ol later realised he could have put in a unit vs bs fire) and controversially Dwellersed off the couldron. I say controversially because I used 5 dice killed it then realised I had 6 dice on the table (one of which was a wound marker for one of my tree kin) we added up again and weren't too sure, I offered to roll to cast the spell agian but Ol said he wasn't really that bothered and just took it off. With 2 more turns I probably would have got it anyway but either way Ol proved why everyone like to play against him and why he is a well like guy in the community, because he really doesn't give a shit about winning or losing. He did concede though so he could go and grab another £8 bottle of Shutter Home Cabernet Sauvignon. 20-0 win.
Game 5 Lizardmen vs Dan Heelan
I had the privilege of playing Dan for all my hard work. Totally gutted, I have never liked Dan really and I don't really know why, I always thought he was a bit of a warhammer snob. I didn't want to play him and I know he is a good player and I fully expect to lose the game. What happened was completely different, I thoroughly enjoyed the game. He had becalming on his Slaan, lots of temple guard and saurus, some scar vets on foot and the usual ton of chaff. I deployed my lvl 4 riiiiiiiight on the right hand side a good 40" away from his Slaan in order to push forward 10" in turn one and 6 dice skills Dwellers, I saw this as my only chance to cast it in the game due to bacalming. I won the first turn and did exactly that, killed 15 out of 30 saurus (well above average) the proceded to shoot the unit down to 6 models. The miscast saw me roll dimensional cascade but my wizard survive. the rest of the game was usual wood elf cat and mouse tactics with me feeding his temple guard units as and when I needed to. I shot off a lot of chaff but the game changing moment was when I used Hail of Doom on the unit of 3 Salamanders, along with the bow shots from the unit I reduced the unit to 1 wound. Dan used regrowth on the unit and they were back up to near full. Completely gutted. Those salamanders proceeded to get Dan the points he needed to draw the game with me, but in fairness we both played well and a draw was a fair result.
As for Dan I couldn't have been more wrong about the guy, an absolute gent to play, a master with the rules, I learned a lot and he was good fun and a great sport complimenting me a number of times on certain decisions and I gave him my best sports vote, it turned out later he had done the same for me. I honestly can't believe I was so wrong about the guy, that's what you get for being judgemental I guess.
Game 6 Dark Elves vs Luke Rooney
I was delighted to be drawn against Dark Elves again for my final game as they aren't a bad match up for the age old defenders of Athel Loren. Luke had supplied all the scenery for the event and was a nice guy.
He was running death magic which I had a really hard time dealing with. He killed my lvl 4 in turn 2 and my BSB in turn 3. I thought the game was over at that point but somehow my desperation push came off, I had shot off most of his chaff and with a volley of arrow fire and Hail of Doom I had also taken out a Hydra, I set up a counter charge for my Treeman which he fell for and I got into combat with the other Hydra using my Tree. I won that combat, the Hydra fled but I didn't catch it. Eventually I got the Tree in again with only 2 wounds left he killed the Hydra. The Tree died next turn but the opening created let me charge his bunker with 8 Dryads and the Branchwraith, between them they killed the lvl 4 and a load of spearmen. Masses of combat ensued with Dryads vs Spearmen, Tree kin vs the Pendant BSB and even Glade Guard vs Repeater Crossbowmen, the outcome was a bloody mess with very little left on the board. Great game and a great last game to have. 10-10
Roundup
So there you go that was Sheffield Slaughter 2013, I will definitely be going again. The next event for me will be the Mersey Meltdown in 3 weeks. I will be taking my wood elves again and anything above a half way finish will again be a great result for the forest dwellers.
Jay
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