Thraundils battle log game 56: UB tournament Round One!

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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 35: GF training 2

Post by T.D. »

Yeah, like the list and your play with it. Worth a shot at GF.

Shadowblade is a great ace to have up your sleeve 8)
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 35: GF training 2

Post by Sangfroid »

Sounds like a great fun and tactical battle, MVP to the bloodshade, it doesn't happen very often but when it does it's almost better than winning the game :-) I've said this previously some of elite champions are excluding wounds and gear almost as good as a hero, especially the Sisters and locks with their ward saves!

however I think you may have (sadly) played it incorrect as the bloodshade only gets 1 attack........

But it's chaos so anything goes :evil: :twisted: :lol:
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 35: GF training 2

Post by T.D. »

Sangfroid wrote: however I think you may have (sadly) played it incorrect as the bloodshade only gets 1 attack........


Frenzied ;)
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 36: GF training 3

Post by Sangfroid »

Of course "insert homer-Simpson-like-doh here" :-)
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 36: GF training 3

Post by Thraundil »

Yup, unit is frenzied thanks to witchbrew :)

Cheers for the comments, its encouraging as always. The common theory in my gaming group is that alot of people will bring "soft" lists expending rather few CP, so I'll be faced with a lot of +300 VP opponents. But... Under the restrictions, the warrior list was considered soft, and mine is considered hard to the maximum, so yeah :P
I'm really hot for this list though. Shadowblades utility is a great trick as you say - I dont think he expected it, and while it took some punch of the star, it easily netted me a like 400 VP swing (got the chariot, didnt give away the darkshards with banner or the bolt thrower which would surely have been charged the round after).
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Thraundils battle log, game 37-39: GF pre-tourney

Post by Thraundil »

Yo lads!
Played the first of two Giant Fanatic pre-tournaments (not associated with Giant Fanatic, just a friendly tourney using the same restriction set to practice :) )

I brought the infamous Shadestar. I am liking how it plays more and more, and I think it will be the list I'll end up bringing. I'll just do a short recap of the 3 games with the general features of the opponents lists.

Current iteration in short:
Dreadlord, 1+ armor via dragonhelm, giant blade, dawnstone, ironcurse, crossbow, halberd (reason for halberd: had 3 points left over, and it might confuse opponents ;) )
Lvl 4 metal, other tricksters shard, ring of hotek, dispel scroll (1 CP)
Master BSB, 1+ armor via enchanted shield, sword of anti-heroes, opal amulet, handbow
Death Hag, witchbrew, obsidian blade
Shadowblade
5 DR, crossbows, shields
5 DR, crossbows
30 WE, FC, razor banner
2 RBT (1 CP)
20 Shades, FC, great weapons (2 CP)
5 warlocks (1 CP)


Game One: High Elves

He brought roughly:
Prince on steed
Lvl 4 life
dragonmage (bought with discount via CP)
BSB with reaver bow
20 archers
2x5 reavers
10 Silver Helms
25 White Lions
1 Bolter
Frostheart Phoenix
Eagle

Scenario: After deployment, before vanguard, pick an opponent character. He is worth double VP.

Deployment went pretty well, although I deployed my shades very agressively. Perhaps a bit too much so. He got to go first, and flew his dragonmage up to breath weapon them, though he only could touch 3 of them. He promptly rolls 3 1's to wound. His magic goes into the shades too but I dispel the lot (I channeled 2 dice). Archers and BSB aim for one bolt thrower but only manage one wound. He tried to block my witches with an eagle, but since he deployed behind a rock he couldnt get a good angle, and I actually had a 13" charge on his mage. He opts to flee, knowing that if I catch him, I am in prime position to wreck his entire line. He rolls 11" flee distance and is catapulted off the board by his own units... From there, I consolidate my centre and start going to town on his archers with my shooting. He does a wide flank with SH and slams into my witch elves. My hag finds that his lord does not have charmed shield, and a giant blade. She paid with her life to learn this. He drops I think 9 witches total with me murdering 8 SH thanks to razor banner and 35 attacks. The following combat round, shadowblade appears, challenges the foul high elf prince to a duel, and murders him with two perfect slices across the jugulars. From then on it was cleanup. His frostheart manage to kill shadowblade, but dies soon after to warlocks and the remaining witches. I nearly lose my BSB to a reaver suicide mission, him wounding twice and me landing snakeeyes. Opal amulet saved me, though. In the end he has his BSB survive the game as the sole survivor, while he does take a portion of my army with him for an 18-2 victory.



Game Two: Dwarves

Dwarf list:
Runelord on anvil of doom (an upgrade which is free in the restrictions) + destroy rune
Runesmith with destroy rune
Master Engineer
Thane BSB
Thane General
30 Longbeards
10 warriors
10 thunderers
25 slayers
21 miners
Grude thrower
Organ gun with trenches
Flame cannon
Cannon
Gyrocopter

Scenario: Tornado of magic. +d3 power dice, +1 dispel dice. Every time a wizard needs to roll on the miscast table, you default to dimensional cascade. Also, every friendly wizard takes a S1 hit with d3 wounds and no saves of any kind. Yikes! Wizards that do not roll on the miscast table do as they normally would. All surviving lord/hero wizards at the end of the game gives +150 VP each. This meant that for the entire game, my lvl 4 just hid behind a hill, casting nothing.

There is an impassable overlapping the flank of his deployment zone, where he opts to castle up, deploying his miners regularly. I deploy withces behind a hill right across from him, shades in a forest facing his centremost flank where slayers are waiting. I get to go first, and squeeze a dark rider unit through in a gap between the impassable and the table edge. I also place warlocks in a possible charge distance from his central warriors. Pouring all shade shots and 2 bolt throwers into the organ gun nets me a single wound off it for my effort...
His deployment was unsharp, and he is forced to reposition to protect from my flanking threats. His central 10 warrior unit tries a charge on my warlocks, and falls short on the dice. His organ gun is forced to shoot the dark riders that got through the impassable, leaving the core of my troops reasonably unharmed. Cannon pops a bolt thrower, other artillery falls short (his thrower misfires even with the reroll). The failed charge of the small warrior unit enables me to decalre an 8" charge on the 10 warriors. He opts to hold, fearing the masses of panics should he flee through his own entire line. I make it in - I basically won the game here, as I brutally murder all 10 warriors and overrun into his longbeards containing 3 of his characters. In the following round, my lord and BSB makes way into base contact and shadowblade appears. Shadowblade brutally kills the BSB in a challenge. The lord kills the general. My BSB, being in base contact with 3 characters, whips out 7 S7 hits on his runesmith, killing him. Witches then massacres 12 longbeards. He has the stubborn rune, though and sticks. In my combat round, I wipe the unit out and reforms. Meanwhile this is happening, my shades decide to let the organ gun be now that im safely in melee, and starts showering the dwarf slayers with bolts. He tries to charge a few times, failing to make the distance and losing dwarf after dwarf to precise, black feathered bolts. My witch bus ultimately also destroys his miner unit, and being stuck in the impassable, one turn of shooting from him then kills almost 20 witches. The lord solocharges out to take care of the cannon, overrunning into the stone thrower. In the end I get everything but the rune lord, and he gets 1 dark rider unit and both bolt throwers. Complete victory, 20-0.


Game Three: Tomb Kings

After game 2, I was in first place. I was really gutted to learn I would be facing tomb kings, as they have maybe one of the strongest counters to my list... Lots of accurate missile fire.

He had the loremaster special char, and the girl that lets archers use her BS3. Then 2 light wizards plus:
35 archers
6 chariots
10 warriors
20 warriors
Hierotitan
Catapult
3 stalkers
5 necroknights
warsphinx
casket

Scenario: Central terrain is a blood forest, except the forest itself can also be targeted by spells. End of the game, the player who controls the forest gets +750 VP.

Deployment went reasonably well for me. My gameplan was to get rid of the archers. I got first turn, and went to work. The "kill archers" plan went pretty smoothly, sadly I heavily underestimated his other troops. The warsphinx killed 18 witches with a breath weapon, and while I charged and killed it, this meant his necroknights could flank my witches, and I am stuck there while I am slowly withered down by his insane magic phases as I fail every reform test (literally every magic phase was 12 vs 6 dice, and he has so many buff spells I could never stop them all). In my turn 6 he has forgotten about the scenario, and I have just 2 dark rider units left. I zoom them into the forest, but since he gets the last turn, he decimates them with magic, and then captures the forest himself, allowing him to earn 3k+ VP and a smashing 20-0. I threw the game away myself - had I played with more caution, keeping back and focused on shooting his archers and then capture the forest, i think I would have done ways better. I am very disappointed by the result, but I think I lost the game in my head. I respected / feared the matchup way too much, and went into the game certain I was gonna have a super hard time and probably lose. In that way, the game taught me a valuable lesson. Dont ever friggin think like that. If I had played to win, and played to win through the scenario, I think I could have kept the game to a narrow swing either way.


End of the day, the major wins in game 1 and 2 allowed me third place!



Concerning scenarios: I think scenario 1 and 2 are pretty fun, and makes for interesting games with small to medium swings from normal tactic. I think scenario 3 is... well. It will make 9 out of 10 games 20-0's, because the player with the upper hand will take the forest and get 750 VP on top of it all. The scenario also heavily favours the player NOT getting first turn, as you can cast spells on the forest to make it walk away. I will try to adjust tactics for the actual GF tournament.

Concerning games overall: Game 1 and 2 I won both those games due to mistakes by my opponent which I was able to very swiftly punish. Had his dragonmage been alive to land a good breath attack in game 1, it had been a very different story. Although him being T5, I think I could have played defensively and gotten a minor win still. Instead he made a mistake and got a major win. Game 2, his choice to attempt a (rather long) charge with those 10 warriors, caused me to get into melee turn 2 and wreck him. (BOY do witches with superfrenzy and 3 combat characters make work!!!!! The unit cleared 10 warriors, then 30 longbeards + 3 chars, then 21 tunnelers, all the while losing 1 witch elf). Since he had little shooting apart from war machines I would probably still have made it into combat - but with more losses along the way. Game 3, I made the stupid mistakes which rises from my inexperience vs TK (only played them 2 times ever). It will not happen the next time! I am - aside from the one misplay there - rather satisfied with both my own performance and the army. Game 3 was the only real mistake I made all day, and the list is solid. I dish out a bunch of shots meaning I can eliminate enemy shooting fast. And by melee units are incredible. I didnt get to play vs stuff with regen: I have dished the 10 darkshards with flaming banner as they are just a pretty bad unit overall with so few numbers. I would like to have tested it, but oh well. I shall have to rely on number of attacks to deal with trolls then ;)
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Thraundils battle log, game 40-43: GF training

Post by Thraundil »

So, attended another one-day tournament testing out lists for Giant Fanatic. This time I wanted to see if I could play without a dispel scroll, but as a benefit get +1 for first turn (stacking with +1 for deploying first). I also played a practise game vs a wood elf friend of mine.

The list:
Dreadlord, 1+ armor via dragonhelm, giant blade, dawnstone, potion of foolhardiness, crossbow, halberd
Lvl 4 metal, ironcurse icon, ring of hotek, power scroll
Master BSB, 1+ armor via enchanted shield, sword of anti-heroes, other tricksters shard, handbow
Death Hag, witchbrew, obsidian blade
Shadowblade
5 DR, crossbows, shields
5 DR, crossbows
30 WE, FC, razor banner
2 RBT (1 CP)
20 Shades, FC, great weapons (2 CP)
5 warlocks (1 CP)
+1 for first turn (1 CP)

First, the practise game vs wood elves:

He played a wood elf list with lvl 4 high, Durthu, BSB, 16 trueflights, 16 poison, 9 wild riders, 2x3 warhawks with champions, 2x5 sisters and 7 waywatchers. Slippery stuff with a bunch of shooting. Long story short: warhawk riders are impossible to stop because he can eat 4 bolt thrower wounds without removing a model due to having a champion. In turn 1 he shot 10 shades. In turn 2 he shot another 8. Durthu stupidly charged the witch elves, I rolled like an ass for poison and he runs them over. He even loses his lvl 4 to a miscast, which allows me to pull away with all my characters and keep it to a moderate loss - I think 17-3, because I manage to drop Durthu. And the lvl 4. That was what I got out of that game - worst matchup imagineable, as I well knew!




Onwards to the tournament results:

In game 1 I went up against a fluff army: warriors of chaos, with mark of khorne across the board. It was a little bit of a disappointing game, as it wasnt really a true test of my list. My opponent made numerous mistakes in every movement phase. I even failed a LD10 frenzy check with reroll on the shade star, and I still obliterated him for a 20-0 win, something of a habit of mine in game 1 in a tournament...

As a consequence, in game 2 I had to play on the winner table against another warrior of chaos, with a pure nurgle warrior army and Galraug + a chimera. 3 breath weapons on 2 flying monsters. Nice. (For those who dont know Galraug: he is a dragon, lvl 4 tzeentch wizard, has a S4 flaming breath AND a breath which forces a T test or be removed as a casualty with no saves of any kind). In turn one I made a small mistake and allowed a chariot to charge my warlocks. He did 4 wounds with impact hits, and I fail 4 ward saves, causing my unit to be destroyed. With average rolls, I would have killed the chariot. This was sort of indicative of things to come: he cast gateway on one of my bolt throwers, getting IF, rolling the small template result, and then rolling a "1" to wound himself. I played a passive game, knowing I could not allow the breath weapons free approach. In 4 turns, my combined shooting and magic efforts resulting in a total of one wound inflicted to a chariot. As a consequence, his (perfectly played and cautious) approach was met with zero effective counter pressure. One flaming breath took out 16 witch elves, and his BSB mauled the remainder. Another two breath attacks (a S4 and the T one) onto the shade star saw me with 6 shades remaining. On the one turn where I got a good magic phase, I managed to sear 5 wounds off Galraug, but he then flew behind a hill to conserve his points. On my turn 6, I managed to get a charge through on a nurgle warrior block, whom I dismembered and overran to safety with all my characters: I only lost the game 6-14. My opponent was one of my regular gaming mates, and thankfully he is one of the types who feel with you when the dice rape you completely - and the game was a good lesson on "how to conserve shiz when everything goes wrong". Seriously. 1 wound total, in 4 turns. Genuinely ridiculous.

For the third and final game, I played on the #2 table since my large BP score in game one still meant I was placed fourth overall. The opponent: a wood elf. F me. He had a lord on dragon, lvl 4 life, and the twin sister special char - also on dragon, coming out of the hero selection... Like, seriously. 2 dragons in one list, thanks!
I got first turn and managed to shoot a bunch of his trueflights. Then he flew both dragons onto my unit flanks. He cast dwellers with 4 dice, rolled average. I tossed 6 dice to dispel. I fail to dispel. I then proceed to loose 22 out of 30 witch elves to the spell. The double breath attack further cut down my troops. This was on turn one by the way.
I decide to go down with honor, and charge my 4 remaining witch elves with lord and BSB against 6 wild riders (he had blocked the unit with an eagle, but due to the horrific casualty rate, I was able to squeeze past it). They hack them down and lose the remaining 4 witches - but overrun into an eternal guard unit with his BSB in.
Death hag and lvl 4 was in shades, and then turn around and try to face one dragon. My warlocks get a rear charge on the twin sisters dragon - they kill the twins. The dragon inflicts 5 wounds to them. I proceed to fail 5 ward saves. A bolt thrower also manage to pop his lord off the dragon with a well placed single bolt.
All in all he charge the remaining shades with 5 wild riders, and both (now riderless) dragons. Shadowblade killed one dragon by himself, earning me full points for his lord at least. Death hag murdered all the wild riders. But I still go on to lose combat by like 9, and the unit is run down by the remaining dragon....
Other end of the board, my BSB and lord are figthing his eternal guard with LD10 stubborn. My BSB takes 3 wounds. I lay down 2 1's and he dies. My lord then proceeds to tank the unit for 7 subsequent combat rounds. In the final turn of the game, he is flank charged by waywatchers and rear charged by the dragon. And he survives like a boss, and rolls a 3 for break. This contains the defeat to a 5-15 in favour of the wood elves, as my rampant moved managed to win back a little bit.

Final tally at 31 BP - just slightly above average. Not satisfying. But, I think I can safely say that wood elves, having faced 2 vastly different lists and getting raped both times, are the horror matchup. The 2nd chaos warrior should not have been such a big deal, but when everything fails on the dice, its hard to do much. Breath weapons stink, but 2nd game was not lost because of that, but because I with a heavy shooting army couldnt kill anything with shooting. I am still pleased with how the list plays: it is not easy to get heavy points out of it, unless the opponent is a wood elf player. The army has many more strong matchups than it has weak ones, and so I think this is still my best bet. At least now I know that if I face breath weapons, I deploy on the flank, and all the way to the back, and just sit there. Anything to prevent him from landing on my flanks and kill 20 models at a time.
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 37-39: GF pre-tourney

Post by T.D. »

Love the concept of the Double Dragon Wood Elf list :P

Thanks for the continuing feedback. I really like your ShadowShadestar list, so very interested to see how it plays out.

Magic missiles, breath weapons and BS spam have always troubled DE shadestars, and the new Wood Elves have the potential to bring all of this to the max! Definitely always a tough match up, but perhaps with clever (or fortunate) play versus the Woodies and good match ups elsewhere you will be able to rack up a decent score overall.

What are your thoughts closing in on GF? Was this tourney a place to iron out some kinks, or are you going to rethink any of your approach?
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 37-39: GF pre-tourney

Post by Amboadine »

Excellent write up and analysis. Enjoyed the read and commentary.
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 37-39: GF pre-tourney

Post by Thraundil »

As always thanks for the positive feedback guys =)

I used this tourney to see if I could play the list without a dispel scroll in order to get a stacking +1 for first turn. And I think I'm going to stick with that setup and a power scroll. Going first means a bunch, I feel! Although I honestly have my doubts even as I'm writing this, hue. What do you guys think? This weekend, I went first in all 3 games, having +2, +1 and +1 for the rolloffs, respectively. I always deployed first, but if the opposition buys +1 to start that is cancelled out.

Woodies are definitely the horror matchup. Closing in, I think that unless I get matched up against several wood elves in a row, I should have a decent chance of raking in a good score. Out of the 50 guys who has revealed their race yet, 10 are warriors of chaos so far (spot which race is not very hard comped :P ) but that is, barring breath weapon spam, a fairly OKish matchup since he cant really engage me with any one part of his army. Then there are 7 of each elf race, which means a WE match (baaaaad) is about as likely as a HE match (pretty goodish). Time will tell! I feel comfortable about the list - while I can certainly conclude that it can struggle abit in getting points when under pressure, it is also hard to take points from. My game number 2 this weekend went HORRIBLE and I only gave up 6 BP.
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 37-39: GF pre-tourney

Post by T.D. »

Dispel scrolls are basically one turn salvation from a possible game-winning merking!

But on the other hand, first turn for your list is also possibly a game-winning boon/salvation (such as against a gunline).

So I suppose it evens out ...and the power scroll is a good card to have up your sleeve.
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 37-39: GF pre-tourney

Post by Amboadine »

I am still very reluctant to go anywhere without the dispel scroll. It has saved me a number of times in the past.
It is a crutch, but without it in a tourney you are potentially risking a high placing due to a major spell getting through destroying your battle line.
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 37-39: GF pre-tourney

Post by N.I.C.K »

Hey Thomas, as always love reading about the evolution of the shadestar. Keep it up!

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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 37-39: GF pre-tourney

Post by Thraundil »

I am going to stick with the offensive choice! +1 for first turn and a power scroll. The only really devastating spells, well I shall simply have to stock dispel dice to get rid of that one spell, and then allow the others to get through. Getting first turn gives me initiative for the entire game, dispel scroll only gives me a defensive pick in one phase. Its decided then!

And thanks for the comments as usual. Even though my name is Jakob, and not Thomas ;)
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 37-39: GF pre-tourney

Post by N.I.C.K »

Apologies wrong shadestar poster! There is another shadestar thread who's forum handle is Tamodam whose name is Thomas ;) Have you found the list is able to push for bigger 20-0 wins?
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 37-39: GF pre-tourney

Post by Thraundil »

N.I.C.K wrote:Apologies wrong shadestar poster! There is another shadestar thread who's forum handle is Tamodam whose name is Thomas ;) Have you found the list is able to push for bigger 20-0 wins?


No issue at all ^^

My list can go for the 20-0 if the matchup allows it. First and foremost, the idea is to take 'everything but the opposition character bunker +/-'. And then, once thats accomplished, ideally I have more on the table since my own chaff, fast cav and the like are not so easy to take out (unless in a bad matchup :P ) giving me somewhere between 12 and 15 battle points. More depending on scenarios. But so far I've played a 17-3 and a 20-0 vs high elves, a 20-0 vs dwarves, and a 20-0 vs warriors of chaos, along with my narrow (bit lucky) 13-7 win over a warrior, too. The matchups to ideally avoid are tomb kings, wood elves, and mass-breath-weapon warriors which the restrictions really favour (galraug, throgg and a chimera would be, yep, 4 breath weapons). Lizardmen might be weak, certain very shooty high elves might also. Other than that I should be able to hold my ground.

The tourney is tomorrow! And tonight, at the venue, im possibly playing a warmup game vs one of the strongest players in Denmark. He plays high elves... if I recall, phoenix guards, 10 silver helms with a few naked chars, and a flamespyre. On paper a good matchup for my list. But he is really strong with it, and if I can hold my own against him that will be the true test of fire for me :P
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Thraundils battle log, game 44+: Giant Fanatic 2014

Post by Thraundil »

Yo lads!
Home from giant fanatic here with a quick recap of the weekends games.

Friday afternoon I played two warmup games.

Warmup 1:
High Elves for the opponent, with a flamespyre, phoenix guard, lord on eagle, BSB on griphon and a bunch of shooting. I start out alright, and shoot his sisters of avelorn off the table and panic his ellyrian reavers. On his turn 1 his two bolt throwers at 5+ to hit lands 10 casualties on the shadestar, and an IF fiery convocation + archer volley leaves a single witch elf standing. Game over in turn 1. Alright then, onwards. The opponent went on to finish 2nd overall.

Warmup 2:
Took another warmup vs an all-goblin list. 50 with spear, 2x20 archers, all full of fanatics. 50 man strong squig herd. 2 mangler squigs, double up on all war machines. I deployed with extreme caution, and manage to lure out all the fanatics through sacrificing just my two dark rider units. I get in on him (aided, maybe, by a few failed animosity tests) and clean up, but miss the big character bunker for a 15-5.


Unwards to the big tourney.
Giant Fanatic game 1:
In game one, where the matchup is totally randomised, I get the nightmare opponent. Wood elves. 18 trueflights, 16 poisons, 13 waywatchers, 2x7 wild riders, durthu, and 9 sisters with BSB and lvl 4 in. He makes a major deployment error, giving my shades a completely clear shot at his trueflight unit. But with +2 for first turn I of course dont get it, and he removes my army more or less in 2 turns.


Giant Fanatic game 2:
Game two I meet another guy who got crushed in the first game. A warrior of chaos with an all-tzeentch list. Lvl 4 on disc with 3+ ward, BSB on demonic with 3+ ward, lvl 2 metal, hero on foot, 2x15 warriors, 5 horsemen (with slaanesh mark, though), 5 knights, a shaggoth and spawn of chaos. I get a pretty good deployment, and get to go first too. My plan is to earn the warriors with shooting and keep the rest at bay with the melee threat of my chars. He turns out to have blasted standard on my first target of choice, he fails the roll, and I kill 13 warriors. I also IF gehennas on the BSB for 2 wounds. He is pressured into a charge, where I maul him completely and clean it up for a comeback 20-0.


Giant Fanatic game 3:
Last opponent of saturday was an empire list. All halfling theme! Very beautiful army. Lord on royal griphon, a bunch of foot sloggers. 30 spears, 30 swordsmen, 10 ICK, 3 demis, steam tank, war altar and luminark. Deployment goes very well for me, but in a madness, his pidgeon bomb lands spot on 2 turns in a row (wtf!?!) and kills 20 witch elves, removing all hope of cleaning up his weak core units. At this point it looks like a small defeat, but he is greedy and charge the lord into the back of the star, with 3 demis in the flank. 3 ICK fails their charge into the front, as does 30 swordsmen (who, in all fairness, needed a 10, and if they had made it in, I'd have been balled). My stand and shoot luckily drops the war altar after 3 turns of focused missile fire. In the combat, shadowblade does it well and drops the royal griphon and even survives the lords return attacks. My own lord and death hag removes the demis. I run the lord down, and clean up the ICK for a 15-5 win.


Giant Fanatic game 4:
First game sunday. Ogre kingdoms. 2 irongut blocks, 3 mournfang, 6 leadbelchers, a cannon and 2 thundertusks. At a glance I should be able to draw or maybe get a small win, but I dont get final transmutation, and he then proceeds to roll 8 direct hits with the stone throwers out of 12 shots. meanwhile, my magic and shooting falls entirely through. 4 turns of pure focus on the mournfang, results in one dead model. He essentially wins the game 20-0 with the two thundertusks, and my shitty dice.


Giant Fanatic game 5:
Mirror match vs a dark elf list. Witch elves, executioners, hellebron and a cauldron. I dont get final transmutation, and so I have zero magic presence. We trade flak - bad luck on my part since I should win the flak war with all my shooting, and then maybe conserve at least a little of the fast cav. Game looks drawish, but I cant escape with the witch elves without any redirectors. In the combat I decide to take a chance, and shadowblade goes to work on Hellebron. I land 2 killing blows, but he friggin manages both 5+ ward saves. So I lose 13-7 though it should have been a draw.



End of the weekend I have to admit my list was just not as strong as I had hoped. The shades disappointed with their shooting in 3 of 5 games, and lore of metal without final transmutation is just not so hot vs non-armored opponents. That being said, I feel like I mostly played rather well under the various circumstances. Looking back, the game vs OK I misplayed a bit. Should have gone for a flank approach instead, but kind of late now I guess. The game vs WE was over after he got first turn and all my figthing chance went south. But all my other games I played well, with no major mistakes, so I feel the weekend was one well spent regardless.

The painting scores was incredibly harsh, though, and my army was awarded 0 points. Many people where not happy with how this was scored, in fact one of my friends who played 5 wins with his incredible wood elf list could have finished in 5th place, but was not given painting points either and instead finished 20th, which about says it all. To clarify: you would get either 15 or 0 points. No in-between for a small mistake. Have one "error" in the eyes of the judges, and its a 0...

Oh, but you guys wanna hear the reason (I asked them)? On my army I used two high elf bolt thrower models (I dislike how the DE official models look). And the crew where corsair models. So, in their eyes: I proxy my bolt throwers. So 0 points. Pretty ridiculous I think - but requirements are requirements, just a shame. Out of 99 players (there was 1 standin with a borrowed army who wasnt scored) 32 was given a score of 0... And in my opinion there where only very few armies that was not tabletop standard. Harsh much?
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
Koller
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 44+: Giant Fanatic 2014

Post by Koller »

Sucks to hear that mate, i also got a beautifull 0 for my army. But i really liked your shadestar build, there is a tournament (krigsmaskinen) in a month, and i will give the shadestar a chance, there will be a few changes :)
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 44+: Giant Fanatic 2014

Post by Thraundil »

Koller wrote:Sucks to hear that mate, i also got a beautifull 0 for my army. But i really liked your shadestar build, there is a tournament (krigsmaskinen) in a month, and i will give the shadestar a chance, there will be a few changes :)


Ouch. Sucks, that. I would've thought your army met the criteria for the points, too, and it just sort of confirms my view of the way too harsh criteria.... Out of the 5 of us coming from Aarhus, only one army was awarded the paint points.

I am still rather gutted by it, but I got some feedback from one of the judges. Or actually from both. One guy says if I put a HE corpse on the bolt thrower base, it would be obvious that the corsair crew had just captured it in battle... The other guy said, and I quote: "people who cant paint like a pro should not be winning tournaments". So yeah. That. They said, however, that if my bolt thrower had its origin from a box with "DE" printet on it and not "HE", I would have gotten the points. F that right :P

Good to hear you're giving it a run, just be careful to make the right adjustments from my list. With a couple more bolt throwers and a 2nd warlock unit I think the list would have performed loads better. Oh, and a pegasus lord, for sure! I missed that quite some, and it would have turned especially the ogre kingdoms game into a completely different situation.
Can you take special chars for the tourney? And, where is it held? :P
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 44+: Giant Fanatic 2014

Post by T.D. »

Thanks for the feedback.

The painting issue sounds like it was being reffed by people taking themselves far too seriously!

While you may be disappointed in your game placing, by the sounds of it you performed well given the circumstances. The Empire match in particular was a superb turnaround albeit your opponents error. And when shooty lists' dice go wrong...they go wrong.

Do you think the more cookie cutter Witches + CoK list would have performed better at this particular tournament?

I think the Shadestar has potential, aside from its Kryptonite of certain Wood Elf builds. 20-0 versus a strong WoC list is very creditable.

Either way, looking forward to seeing what new directions you explore in your competitive lists :)
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Thraundil
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 44+: Giant Fanatic 2014

Post by Thraundil »

Thanks for the kind comments T.D. :)

I think you are right. The shade star has potential for sure, and had I gotten different matchups it would have been very different... Template weapons are just a curse.
There where quite a lot of dark elves present. Infact alot of elves all over. #3 overall was a dark elf, but I do not know his list. #2 was a high elf, and unofficial #5 a wood elf... The WE guy was my friend, who didnt get painting points either, and thus came in number 20 not dropping a single game all weekend - impressive show, but wood elves could also IMO field the strongest elf list. The overall winner was a vampire counts, whom also went through the restrictions rather 'neatly'. One of the former best DK players, that one. Of course, all the top finishers where, as they won 4 or 5 games in brute style.
But at least a couple of the other DE players went with either a heavy knights, witch elves or executioners style list. Whether through bad matchups or what, they got into some serious trouble. The trademark of dark elf play, shooting support and board control, was very limited in the restrictions, and it was one of the hardest comped races along with daemons (who actually went through fairly easy too... only really beasts of nurgle was hit, there). Anyways - I am disappointed yes, but not as much as I could be. I didnt lose a game because of stupid play (well other than the small defeat in game 5, I guess). I played as I had to. Just matchup loss game 1 and dice rape game 4, nothing to do about it. I had a fun weekend, its what counts. Now I'll see if I can get focused for the national finals in 3 weeks... Still considering whether I should attend or not. 2 full warhammer weekends in one month is pretty hard. In one week I'll want to go I guess, but right now im devastated in the head :killed: 2x6 hours sleep is harsh conditions when you're used to 8 hours a night.
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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T.D.
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 44+: Giant Fanatic 2014

Post by T.D. »

I also enjoy my 8 hours :P
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 44+: Giant Fanatic 2014

Post by Koller »

Indeed does painting rules were crazy as frig, to the 2MD tournament my army got 14 out of 20 points, and it was even worse painted back then! But i dident get point for quiz or fair play, and i know i got atleast 1 fairplay point, so my 47 point is from raw battlepoints :P

You cant take named chars for that tournament, and it is in Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen. i think i will use life magic in my shadestar, should help against WE arrows, and i have taken an assassin in the build, i love assassins and want one in my army atleast xD
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Thraundil
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 44+: Giant Fanatic 2014

Post by Thraundil »

In retrospect, against the armies I played against, life magic would have been king :P
I just didnt take it since max 4 dice means dwellers have a 50% chance to just not meet the casting value. This should be redeemed if you can use 5.

Top assassin build: black dragon egg. Go go :P

But yeah. Paint score requirements where way off mark I feel.
Probably wont come to cph for a one-day'er :P but good luck on it :D make us proud.
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Thraundil
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Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 1:46 pm
Location: The Depths of Despair

Re: Thraundils battle log, game 44+: Giant Fanatic 2014

Post by Thraundil »

Here is a picture of my army taken during the painting evaluation, by the way. Judge for yourselves.

Feedback lines from one of the judges include, and these are actual quotes, "bad painters should not win tournaments" and "I told you beforehand that you would not be able to make it work". (Particularly pissed about the latter, actually, since it sounds as if he made up his mind about my score before the weekend...!)

This army (Kollers army if I am not mistaken, am I right?) and also this army belonging to the guy I hitched a ride over there with was also awarded a 0. Which to me just... I mean, seriously?

Oh, and just because I think you guys should all see this. Pure halfling themed empire army. So well executed. Was put up for the best painted vote, too.

Anyways. It is, strictly speaking, true that my bolt throwers are proxies. It just doesnt say I am not allowed to do that anywhere in the painting guidelines. Which is my main problem here. If my identical twin (I dont have a twin) had made an identical army without consulting with the painting judges beforehand, he would have met all the criteria listed in the painting score guideline from the official giant fanatic webpage. And would then still have gotten the 0 points. Which is just not good enough.
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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