Ok then,
Time for a proper update - I'm way behind on all this! I've had a fantastic holiday - 2 weeks in Thailand, but still have a few games to tell you about. I have caught up on a fair few of the blogs here, just haven't had time to reply yet. I will do though, I'm enjoying them all - especially the ones that have caught on to my style of formatting lists etc
In terms of list, I've actually stuck with the same one for all 3...actually, that's a slight lie; in the first game I'll report on today (Game III), I didn't have Banner of the Eternal Flame, but after chatting to my opponent I squeezed it in. I cant remember what the list looked like before that, so I'll just share my current build.
This, you'll notice, is 2,500 points - the reason for the increased points limit is that I am preparing for Downfall; an upcoming event held at Firestorm Games in Cardiff. It's taking place on the 14-15th December. This is the 5th year the event has been running, with me being in attendance at all previous events. For the first 3 years
The Heartless picked up a Best Army award at this event (I didn't take them last year
) and I've also placed 2nd & 4th ...however, the Tournament has grown and my playing ability (or care towards it!) has gone the other way, so I don't expect any such results this time around (the last two years I've done poorly as well..probably due to diminishing soft scores!!). Also in terms of painting, my army is now old, tired, and everyone has seen it 400 million times. The new stuff is gonna look nice, really nice actually - far better than the old stuff, but that may actually be detrimental over all. Anyway, that's besides the point. I'll talk more about painting and model later & elsewhere!!
So...what you guys care about first will be the comp pack I am building my list around. You can find that
HERE.Let's take a look at my list...
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The Heartless - 2,500 points // DownfallSupreme Sorceress - General, Level 4, Lore of Death, Dark Pegasus, Cloak of Twilight, Obsidian Trinket. (335)
Master - Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Manticore, Iron Hard Skin, Ogre Blade, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem. (300)
Master - Battle Standard Bearer, Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Sword of Might, Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone. (155)
Sorceress - Level 2, Lore of Metal, Dispel Scroll. (140)
5 Dark Riders - Shields, Standard Bearer, Musician. (105)
5 Dark Riders - Shields, Musician. (95)
5 Dark Riders - Shields. (85)
13 Darkshards - Standard, Musician, Banner of the Eternal Flame. (186)
12 Darkshards - Musician. (154)
31 Har Ganeth Executioners - Full Command, Razor Standard. (402)
5 Shades (80)
5 Shades (80)
5 Shades (80)
Reaper Bolt Thrower (70)
Reaper Bolt Thrower (70)
Kharibdyss (160)
Total - 2,497 points
Shot Cap - 80//80
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So as you can see, I've used elements of what I've used before, as well as taking ideas away from the conversations had here. I will get around to the Warlocks at some point. I'm really not keen on the new Dark Steeds so need to figure out a conversion and also I'm not sure where they fit just yet.
Just some commentary on the list as is; The Peg Sorceress is something I'm very pleased to be using again, as this girl was my go to choice in 7th and even in early 8th before I got obsessed with the Manticore! I do feel you need the Cloak on her, but am not totally convinced by the Trinket just yet - its nice though.
It's a shame to relegate the High Beastmaster to just a hero, but in reality, its a necessity. I'm actually pretty chuffed with my set up on him, but would be interested to know your thoughts.
The other two hero choices are gimme's for me, and I can write them on any list to start with. Happy there.
My Dark Rider set up is weird, I concede that. However it just works and my models are WYSIWYG enough for it not to be confusing in game. I am at the sweet spot of exactly 625 core, so whilst the odd deployment of gear on these may seem bizarre, its just the way I had to work it (I have a model with a banner and wanted the extra fortitude before someone tells me to give all 3 muso's!). I am loving these 3 units though, they (along with Shades) and what makes the army play the way I want it to. The 4+ save is ridiculous.
I'm a fan of the Darkshard units, shame I cant find 25pts for Shields. Not much to be said really!
The Executioners upset me. I've been using them for ages now, when they were far worse than they are now, but seem to be getting less joy out of them. I guess its because they are so hideously unsupported in this army. The Kharibdyss is really soft and often goes down before he can lend a hand. I'm beginning to wonder if I need this many? would 21 (3x7) serve a similar purpose and be less of a point sink? What could I spend the points on though? Aesthetically, my army is lacking my lovely Cold One Knights or Corsairs, so I feel maybe a small unit of them (probably Knights) could be nice? Dunno.
Shades and RBT's - A+ ...we all know this!
Time for a few reports then;
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Game III - VS Matt Clarke - LizardmenMatt is typically a more friendly//fluff gamer who prefers mixed & balanced armies
Slann (Loremaster High)
Skink (Beasts)
Scar Veteran
30 Saurus
30 Temple Guard
2x Skirmisher Skinks
2x Chameleon Skinks
2x Salamander
Ancient Stegadon
Troglodon
This game took place before my holiday, so I may be slightly off with Matt's list, as well as the ensuing report! Matt certainly wasn't packing the quantity of chaff we all associate with a Lizardmen army, so I was easily able to out muscle him in that field early on, resulting in him being left with a couple of big blocks and the monsters pretty early on in the game. I tempted Matt with a long charge on my Kharibdyss from his Stegadon; this was so that the Executioners could get past into and into the Temple Guard without that thing tagging on the end of the combat and Thunderstomping me every turn with only a couple of attacks back at it. The Kharibdyss would've been a worthwhile price to pay for this. However, the Stegadon failed its charge. The Executioners got into the Temple Guard and made a horrible mess...though I was impressed with how much damage they did back to me. Without the worry of the D3 wound impact hits, the Kharibdyss was able to take down the Stegadon in a couple of rounds. By this time I then also had the Manticore ready (with the Kharibdyss) to go into the Temple Guard, but decided it really wasn't needed, so they went back round to surround the Saurus, who were being hammered by all my shooting. My magic didn't achieve a massive amount, as I had decided casting Purple Sun would've made for a pretty dull game. This tournament has decided to use its own take on "Unmodified Leadership", so taking out the Salamanders was a relatively easy task. A good game, but not a true test of how I'd cope vs a more standard tournament build...though realistically, I won't be playing at the top tables so that's fine. Also it was nice to get my first win with the new book!!
Result: 20-0 victory for The Heartless(Matt smashed me in the second game when I rocked out my Nippon army!)
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So whilst I couldn't really say I learnt anything from this game, it was nice to see first hand what the Executioners *could* do vs the right targets. It was also the first time that I could say I was truly happy with the list I was using. After all my games with Lizardmen over the last couple of years, this sortve list (lots of small chaff//shooty units) is definitely one I enjoy playing. Also nice to finish a game with the Kharibdyss and Manticore both alive...not sure how often I'll be able to say that!!
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Game IV - VS Weird Porn // Rage Quit Matt Lee - Dark ElvesMatthew is a casual Tournament player who plays to win, but has a penchant for off the wall choices.
Supreme Sorceress w/ Dagger (Shadow)
BSB - my kit
Cauldron
Large Witch Elf Hordes
Darkshards
Dark Riders
Hydra
Kharibdyss
Black Guard
2 Bloodwrack ShrinesThis game took place a day after my return home...so what conspired may be a result of jet lag // extended hangover // ladyboys!!
Matt deployed the Cauldron in the Witches, one Shrine in the Black Guard and one out on a flank. To be perfectly honest, I totally underestimated Matt's army are very much assumed back-to-back wins would be mine. Early on this looked like becoming reality, as I was able to remove his small amount of chaff, cripple the Kharibdyss, and whittle down both blocks. The Manticore had gone through the lone Bloodwrack Shrine without much of an issue. I got greedy early on with the Executioners though as I decided to charge a unit of Dark Riders into the Black Guard to clear a path for the Execs to get into the Hydra for some easy points. I could have aligned this so that their inevitable overrun would take them into the corner of the Black Guard to fight a second round. I probably should've done this (well I should never of declared either charge to start with!), but decided not to. This resulted in both the Hydra and Dark Riders dying as expected, allowing his Black Guard and Bloodwrack Shrine to charge the Executioners. Aligning it differently would've been worthwhile to mitigate the impact hits if nothing else. Regardless to the fact that Executioners are now the go to choice between the two, Black Guard are vastly supreme when pitted against one another. I broke, but got away (losing my BSB in the process); about 15 Executioners remained vs 8 Black Guard once I'd rallied. I then had 2 RBT's at short range & unimpeded to fire on the Black Guard before they could recharge me. I killed one. ONE!!! To follow that up, 13 Darkshards and 5 Shades failed to kill a single Black Guard, showing the fickle nature of ballistic skill shooting! This resulted in dead Executioners. Also at this point, Matts 2 wound Kharibdyss charged my full wound Kharibdyss and killed it. Great. In the middle of the table, the Cauldron was running rampant, getting 2 11" overruns in a row, allowing him to take down my firebase far too quickly and easily. The game sort've petered out from there, I was able to finish off the Black Guard and Shrine with shooting & magic. I also put 10 wounds on his remaining 8 Witches with my last volley from a remaining unit of Darkshards, I had hoped for slightly under average rolling of wards, but it wasn't to be, a couple of Witches survived. Magic did very little for either us overall.
Result: 7-13 defeat for The Heartless---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was a really fun game - just another one where the Executioners were never going to have much joy! My dice rolls where utterly appalling at times. Very frustrating. I liked the Bloodwrack Shrine in the Black Guard a lot. I can't help but wonder if Matt has actually stumbled across something pretty legit there! If he dropped the second Shrine and picked up a couple of units of Shades I think he'd have a very solid army - the double combat blocks is something I am sorely lacking. If it was me, I think perhaps I'd go Corsairs with the Cauldron (though maybe just because I have and like the models!). The Witches did seem fragile.
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Game V - VS Scott "The Boss" Lines - High ElvesScott is a gamey tournament player with a love of net lists and abusing cover rules!
Archmage (High)
Archmage (Shadow)
BSB - Reaver Bow
2x 15 Archers
3x 5 Reavers
2x 5 Swordmasters
30 White Lions - Banner of the World Dragon
2x RBTs
2x Eagle
Pussy Dart
Frostheart Phoenix
This comp pack disallows the inclusion of the Banner and the Book. Instead he had the extra bound Soul Quench.
This was played this morning...I had hoped for a nice first game of Storm of Magic (knowing Scott only has Ghorgons, whilst I could pack a brace of Chimerae and a Hydra!!
) - but no, more tournament practice haha j/k! I'm a big fan of the list Scott was using, a slight variation on the recently emerged HE "netlist" - it looks a lot of fun to play. Once the armies were deployed it was a great sight to behold, loads of units each side, many of our choices almost mirrored actually. Very cool, can't wait till Scott's finished painting them! Anyway, the game started off incredibly well for me (even though I didn't roll my beloved Final Transmutation!!), my shooting & magic very effective early on allowing me to kill off all the Reavers, Eagles, most the Swordmasters and numerous other bits. I did make one mistake in deployment, which I commented on even as I was making it. This was putting the level 2 in the Darkshards who were clearly going to receive the brunt of Scott's shooting and magic early doors (due to location on the table). This meant I had to waste my scroll far too early before she died (which she did). I only put her there for the Enchanted Blades (which did work nicely...for a turn until they died!). She would've been better placed in the Executioners as then she would've been alive to scroll the Fiery Convocation that wiped them out!! Killed 19 in the first turn, forcing me to move into a building to escape the White Lions...however this would be rerolls if I couldn't dispel the Remains in Play during my turn; a winds of magic roll of 3 ensured that didn't happen and that they all died! A few other things swung against me that turn (Kharibdyss going down cheaply etc) and before I knew it I'd gone from very (VERY) comfortably ahead to running my characters away and hiding Dark Riders etc to play the game out. Managed to pick up some good stray points late on with the Manticore and Peg (magic and charging fleers off) but it was too little, too late.
Result: 5-15 defeat for The Heartless---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Very very disappointing result. Another good game though. I couldn't put it all down to bad luck as there was some poor play involved, but on turns one and two I failed to cast spells on 3 dice when Scott had none left. These would've seen RBT's going down earlier, which would've helped massively. I do have to say that its hard to defend how good Dark Riders are vs Ellyrion Reavers - even with them charging me (and seemingly correct average dice rolls) I was still able to best them
. When all was lost I did let Scott have a 4D6 Soul Quench at my lord just to see what would happy, again seemingly average rolls resulted in not a single wound on her (with the Trinket helping out slightly), she was also unharmed by bowfire, so nice to see some survivability on her.
So that's 1 win and 4 losses so far. Go me! In those 5 games, the Executioners have only survived twice and only got me points in one - that's just not good enough for the points invested in them. Im not even sure I've played them that badly (except vs Matt Lee). Is there mileage in me reducing the unit? I need to look at what I lose to get, say, a small unit of Knights. Like I say, aesthetically as much as anything else, though maybe when I've finished painting the new stuff (BSB, Kharibdyss, 5 Dark Riders, 13 Darkshards) perhaps I will feel differently.
Anyway, I've been writing nearly 2 hours now (could've half edited the next episode of the Podcast!!), so I'll leave it there I think.
Hope you enjoy my ramblings and I look forward to hearing back from some of you with any luck
Chris
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