Reflections from a 2400pt tournament
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:55 am
Hi guys - this last weekend I played at Ides of March in a 2400pt tournament using ETC 5 restrictions. I thought it might be useful to reflect on how my list played. I took:
Lord on Peg with Dragonhelm, HA/SDC, Great Weapon, Pendant and Other Tricksters Shard
Supreme Sorc Lvl 4 with Scroll, Lore of Shadow
Master on Cold One with HA/SH/SDC, Lance and Hydra Banner
Cauldron
20 Spears with Banner of Discipline
2 x 5 Harpies
5 Dark Riders with RXBs
30 Corsairs with handbows
11 Cold One Knights with Ring of Hotek and Banner of Swiftness
1 Chariot
Hydra
Key Highlights:
Game 1 vs Empire – 18-2
Pitted the Stank on turn 1, the Cold Ones failed a charge up the middle and were charged by a War Altar and a unit of Great Swords. I’d given them killing blow and they took the Arch Lector off the Altar but were struggling against the Great Swords so I cast Okkams and removed both units. The Lord got into the back line and took out the war machines.
Game 2 vs Daemons – 13-7
Cold Ones took the extra attack and charged a Great Unclean One with Balesword. I rode my luck as he missed with all of his attacks and my Cold Ones took every one of his 10 wounds off in 1 round with a little help from Okkams. They were destroyed soon after by Bloodletters but my Lord with Other Trickers Shard killed 6 flamers, 6 fiends and a Tzeentch mage almost single handedly.
Game 3 vs Lizard – 8-12
When you’re facing 3 units of skirmishing skinks, 2 units of chameleon skinks, 3 blocks of skinks with javelins, 2 units of terradons, a Slann with fire and 2 salamanders the best thing is to go and hide behind a hill. I didn’t and was lucky not to lose by more.
Game 4 vs Brettonians – 16-4
He had a very good build that gave his Knights of the Realm block D6 re-rollable extra charge range that caught my chariot (which had failed stupidity) and after killing that an overrun into the Corsairs. I gave the Corsairs killing blow and took off his BSB and a Lord but the Corsairs broke and where run down. When the Cold Ones finally got a charge they butchered a block of Realm to a man with the help of Okkams. The Lord had been busy killing Trebs and Peasants and got a last turn rear charge into the Grails from a hill, broke them and was a bit unlucky not to run them down for a bigger win.
Game 5 vs Warriors 20-0
Harpies in front of 6 Khorne Knights plus BSB and unkillable Lord on Jugger. He charges, must overrun and gives my Cold Ones his flank. I charge the Cold Ones into the flank, chariot into the front (locking his Lord out of the flank combat) and just for good measure my Lord goes into his other flank. Toughness and Strength Debuffs went off and the entire unit was destroyed except for the Lord in exchange for 1 wound on the chariot. The Lord broke and was run down. Just for good measure my Knights went on to destroy a block of 18 Warriors and finished it of my removing a second unit of 6 Khorne knights.
Game 6 vs Empire 8-12
Again the Stank disappeared down a pit on turn 1 but this guy went on to win the tournament and outplayed me. I eventually got a hold of one of his Knight blocks with the Cold Ones and took it off but my Lord fluffed an opportunity to kill his BSB in a Swordsman block, was broken and flew off the board.
Reflections – the Good.
Cold Ones are awesome and can take care of any problem you might have, but are especially good when combined with the flexibility that the Cauldron and Shadow magic offer them. It’s also quite hard to kill all 12 of them so they keep their points very well. The Banner of Swiftness was important in a couple of situations. Shadow magic was amazing, not a bad spell in the deck (not even Steed if you’ve got a Peg) and you can overlap and combine them to turn an uber unit into a mediocre one. Okkams Mindrazor got me out of so many tricky situations, especially in subsequent combat rounds with the Knights.
The Lord was very hard to kill and very manoeuvrable although next time I will be giving him Caledor’s Bane as the mundane great weapon was a major liability in challenges with the Peg striking first. The Hydra was OK but not spectacular and the chariot also proved quite useful, usually for holding things up.
There’s nothing to say about the Cauldron that hasn’t been said before. They are gold.
The not so Good
Ring of Hotek did something once – possible a ruby ring or something different for next time. The handbows were hard to get into range although they were useful in a couple of situations and I didn’t feel I missed the extra attack in CC.
Lord on Peg with Dragonhelm, HA/SDC, Great Weapon, Pendant and Other Tricksters Shard
Supreme Sorc Lvl 4 with Scroll, Lore of Shadow
Master on Cold One with HA/SH/SDC, Lance and Hydra Banner
Cauldron
20 Spears with Banner of Discipline
2 x 5 Harpies
5 Dark Riders with RXBs
30 Corsairs with handbows
11 Cold One Knights with Ring of Hotek and Banner of Swiftness
1 Chariot
Hydra
Key Highlights:
Game 1 vs Empire – 18-2
Pitted the Stank on turn 1, the Cold Ones failed a charge up the middle and were charged by a War Altar and a unit of Great Swords. I’d given them killing blow and they took the Arch Lector off the Altar but were struggling against the Great Swords so I cast Okkams and removed both units. The Lord got into the back line and took out the war machines.
Game 2 vs Daemons – 13-7
Cold Ones took the extra attack and charged a Great Unclean One with Balesword. I rode my luck as he missed with all of his attacks and my Cold Ones took every one of his 10 wounds off in 1 round with a little help from Okkams. They were destroyed soon after by Bloodletters but my Lord with Other Trickers Shard killed 6 flamers, 6 fiends and a Tzeentch mage almost single handedly.
Game 3 vs Lizard – 8-12
When you’re facing 3 units of skirmishing skinks, 2 units of chameleon skinks, 3 blocks of skinks with javelins, 2 units of terradons, a Slann with fire and 2 salamanders the best thing is to go and hide behind a hill. I didn’t and was lucky not to lose by more.
Game 4 vs Brettonians – 16-4
He had a very good build that gave his Knights of the Realm block D6 re-rollable extra charge range that caught my chariot (which had failed stupidity) and after killing that an overrun into the Corsairs. I gave the Corsairs killing blow and took off his BSB and a Lord but the Corsairs broke and where run down. When the Cold Ones finally got a charge they butchered a block of Realm to a man with the help of Okkams. The Lord had been busy killing Trebs and Peasants and got a last turn rear charge into the Grails from a hill, broke them and was a bit unlucky not to run them down for a bigger win.
Game 5 vs Warriors 20-0
Harpies in front of 6 Khorne Knights plus BSB and unkillable Lord on Jugger. He charges, must overrun and gives my Cold Ones his flank. I charge the Cold Ones into the flank, chariot into the front (locking his Lord out of the flank combat) and just for good measure my Lord goes into his other flank. Toughness and Strength Debuffs went off and the entire unit was destroyed except for the Lord in exchange for 1 wound on the chariot. The Lord broke and was run down. Just for good measure my Knights went on to destroy a block of 18 Warriors and finished it of my removing a second unit of 6 Khorne knights.
Game 6 vs Empire 8-12
Again the Stank disappeared down a pit on turn 1 but this guy went on to win the tournament and outplayed me. I eventually got a hold of one of his Knight blocks with the Cold Ones and took it off but my Lord fluffed an opportunity to kill his BSB in a Swordsman block, was broken and flew off the board.
Reflections – the Good.
Cold Ones are awesome and can take care of any problem you might have, but are especially good when combined with the flexibility that the Cauldron and Shadow magic offer them. It’s also quite hard to kill all 12 of them so they keep their points very well. The Banner of Swiftness was important in a couple of situations. Shadow magic was amazing, not a bad spell in the deck (not even Steed if you’ve got a Peg) and you can overlap and combine them to turn an uber unit into a mediocre one. Okkams Mindrazor got me out of so many tricky situations, especially in subsequent combat rounds with the Knights.
The Lord was very hard to kill and very manoeuvrable although next time I will be giving him Caledor’s Bane as the mundane great weapon was a major liability in challenges with the Peg striking first. The Hydra was OK but not spectacular and the chariot also proved quite useful, usually for holding things up.
There’s nothing to say about the Cauldron that hasn’t been said before. They are gold.
The not so Good
Ring of Hotek did something once – possible a ruby ring or something different for next time. The handbows were hard to get into range although they were useful in a couple of situations and I didn’t feel I missed the extra attack in CC.