US Masters 2015

[Sackree]

My favourite dwarf list is as follows. It came 13th on battle points, 20th overall, has NO warmachines and a Comp of 17. A very ballsy list Imo.



Swedish comp score 17
Total Points 2500

Lords 12.32% total Swedish Comp (-8)
Dwarf Lord- King Daine Baldriksson of Clan Holderhek
308pts Shieldbearers, shield, Runic Axe with Master Rune of Swiftness, Rune of Might, and Rune of Parry, Runic Crown with 3 Runes of Warding

Heroes 17.5%, total Swedish Comp (-43)
Thane- Joms Schulman
197pts, Battles Standard Bearer, Pistol, Great weapon, Runic Standard with Master Rune of Grungni, and the Strollaz Rune
Runesmith- Helga Holderhek
123pts shield Runic Talisman with Master Rune of Passage and 2 Runes of SpellBreaking, Runic Armor with Rune of Stone
Runesmith- Snorri Blackhand
118pts shield Runic Talisman with Rune of the Furnace and 2 Runes of Spellbreaking, Runic Armor with Rune of Stone

Core 26.48% total Swedish Comp (-21)
Longbeards-29
442pts Shield, Full Command, Runic Banner with Strollaz
Dwarf Warriors-10
, Great weapons, Musician
Dwarf Warriors-10
, Great weapons, Musician

Special Troops 26.68% total Swedish Comp (-40)
Gyrocopter

Gyrocopter
100pts Vanguard
Gyrocopter
100pts Vanguard
Ironbreakers-23
387pts, Full Command, Runic Banner with Stoicism

Rare Troops 17% total Swedish Comp (-18)
Rangers-5

Irondrakes-17
355pts Full command with Trollhammer Torpedo, Runic banner with Strollaz and sanctuary

[Swordmaster of Hoeth]

Composition pack had nothing to do with what decision this particular player decided to take. He wanted to play and succeed with the Dwarven army that carries the fight to the enemy and wins. He not only succeeded, he placed the best among all Dwarves.

I am sorry, LA, I understand you don't like Swedish comp, you don't have to. But you are wrong about your assumptions.

Sackree, I posted the link to the topic on Bugmans where that player shares his experiences from the event, check it out if you haven't already!

[Lord Anathir]

To me, 20th overall (13th bp) is not succeeding. A good and above average finish... but success? Its concerning.. no.. alarming that that result is deemed as successful enough to justify the fairness of the comp pack.

[Swordmaster of Hoeth]

It was the best result among other Dwarven generals. It's ok if it is not enough for you, I didn't try to convince you anyway.

And I am afraid you are wrong again, performance of that particular player has nothing to do with the composition pack and he has never mentioned his aim was to show how fair Swedish comp is.

[furbyballer]

Hey guys,

my name is Daniel and I was the one who placed 5th overall with my anointed beasts list. I had an awesome time at masters and would be glad to answer any questions that you guys might have.

here are some peremptory answers to questions that may come up.

Did I copy Justin's list? Nope, Justin and I have extremely close play styles. I have been using the PG list since 2013 when I won Best General at southern Assault in Durham NC at my very first swedish event. I have used it several times to podium and top 10 finishes. I qualified for the masters last year as well but could not attend due to a work interview that I needed to attend. I had the exact same list submitted at that time as well.

Why the Anointed over a Prince? Because he is ITP and I am notorious for blowing LD rolls. The build in 4++ and MR2 are just icing on the cake.

Why Beasts? Because it has some awesome synergies with the Blade of leaping gold, has a baller magic missile, and curse is probably one of the best spells in the game, and so I could put a mountain chimera on my display board (which actually won me a game)

Why LSG? Well because that was a **** up haha. I did not realize when 15.1 dropped that archers also became 2/1 for the bow count. In the older version only reavers with bows and LSG counted 2/1 instead of 1/1 like archers ect... I just didn't catch the change.

What would I change about the list? I would swap the high mage to a L4 and the beast mage to a L3 and drop the OTS for PoS on the anointed. I would change out the SG to archers. Thats it.

How did you loose to justin when your armies are exactly the same? Well when you face someone who one shots your unit of 5 reavers with 1 RBT its going to be a tough game to win. His dice were on fire and I just could not for the life of me kill his GD eagles.

Feel free to ask any other questions.

Daniel

[Shannar, Sealord]

Why LSG? Well because that was a **** up haha.

Ah seaguard. As much as I want to like them....

[Curu Olannon]

Hey Daniel, thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us! First of all, congratulations on your performance. Were you happy with how your list played now in hindsight, i.e. would you only make minor changes or are there more structural issues here as well? Your suggested changes make a lot of sense to me as an incremental development of the concept. Being unfamiliar with Swedish, it's very hard for me to evaluate a list's strengths and weaknesses since I don't know the meta. I mean I see all the lists and results and stuff but since I never play it I just can't get the proper insight I need.

Lastly, how do you feel that 6-dicing, lack of LoS vs big spells etc affect your games? Being used to ETC restrictions I must say Swedish seems kind of odd: The army comp is significantly harsher but the "general stuff" is way lighter.

[furbyballer]

Hey Daniel, thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us! First of all, congratulations on your performance. Were you happy with how your list played now in hindsight, i.e. would you only make minor changes or are there more structural issues here as well? Your suggested changes make a lot of sense to me as an incremental development of the concept. Being unfamiliar with Swedish, it's very hard for me to evaluate a list's strengths and weaknesses since I don't know the meta. I mean I see all the lists and results and stuff but since I never play it I just can't get the proper insight I need.

Lastly, how do you feel that 6-dicing, lack of LoS vs big spells etc affect your games? Being used to ETC restrictions I must say Swedish seems kind of odd: The army comp is significantly harsher but the "general stuff" is way lighter.

I was very happy how my list played. The only thing I was worried about was being "to slow" but that seemed to not be a problem all event.

Unfortunately there was a lot of 6 dicing spells at me all event long. I played a HE players with dwellers, a skaven player with 13th, and 2 players with final trans. I do enjoy the way etc approaches comp more I think, however the way Swedish goes about it you get more variety.

Daniel

[Curu Olannon]

Based on the lists, I'd agree Swedish appears to breed greater variety.

6-dicing is a pain. It is one of the things I hate most about the core rules. It basically boils magic down to forcing a key, imbalanced spell on your opponent and thus completely change the game, compared to reliably get a small boost out of your magic phase. Essentially, the game becomes more random because a single phase can downright make or break a game. True, this happens with X-dicing as well (X <6), but it is significantly less common because of two things:
1. The amount of phases you get where you can bully a spell through decreases
2. Knowing you can't 6-dice amends your list building. Life and Death are prime examples of lores that might lose out to stuff like Heavens and High, both of which promote more diverse and reliable magic strategies.

Also, as for being too slow, I know your feeling. I imagine an L4 High largely makes up for this through a combination of spells: Not only is your ranged damage potential significant with Arcane, Fiery and Soul Quench, but doubling up on Hand + Walk allows for some seriously mobile infantry units.

[Swordmaster of Hoeth]

@furbyballer

Hi Daniel,

Thanks a lot for posting and congratulations on great performance at US Masters!

It is great that you want to share your experience with us! I wonder if you could give us some short descriptions or highlights of your games at US Masters? Personally, I find strategic cards a very intriguing addition and I wonder how did you and your opponents played these and how they affected your games.

I also heard that your army looks fabulous and I am sure many of the forum members would greatly appreciate if you posted some pictures too!

Thanks in advance!

[furbyballer]

I'm at another gt this weekend so I might have to wait and respond on Sunday or tomorrow evening if I have the time. As for pics, I will snap some cell phone shots and put them up.

[Galharen]

Can't wait to see your army:))

Congrats btw, 5th place is already a great result:))

[wamphyri101]

Hi guys,

I will write up my battle reports at some point, but we recorded our US masters show today so if you're interested in listening, go for it!

http://www.chumphammer.com/category/podcasts/

[Keith]

To me, 20th overall (13th bp) is not succeeding. A good and above average finish... but success? Its concerning.. no.. alarming that that result is deemed as successful enough to justify the fairness of the comp pack.

Success is relative to the goal the player had going in.


Swede and the comp pack were and are more than fair to dwarves. Dwarves won 2 GTs this year under swede comp already in 2015, with this same pack.

[furbyballer]

These are pictures I took quickly with my cell phone at last weeks GT that I took 1st overall at. I will follow this post up with quick battle reports from my time at masters.

[Swordmaster of Hoeth]

Hi Daniel,

I am afraid I can't see the pictures. Or is it only me?

[sparkytrypod]

cant see em either

[furbyballer]

Pictures should be up and fixed.

RD1 Chaos Dwarves: L4 metal, L2 death engineer, 30+ Infernal Guard with Blunderbusses, 2 Iron Demons, 1 Kdai, 1 unit of 3 bull centaurs, and 2 hob goblin khans.

I knew that I would seriously never have a better chance of playing my Blood and Glory objective card so I used it for this first round. Spoiler, I killed that bull centaurs and broke him lol. I new that I could not come anywhere near his blunderbus unit so I deployed around the edges of the map with my PG on the right and my SG and silver helms on the left. It then became six dice final trans monkey game where I was trying as hard as possible to get my PG into combat while at the same time not getting within in range to be gunned down by the 35 blunderbus unit with access to enchanted blades. Finally I pulled his Iron Demon out and his kdai and he charged my PG with both on turn 3. At this point he had power drained his wizard and lost all his spells except searing doom. Over the next 3 turns I ground out both Iron Demons and the Kdai with my PG and anointed (both wizards had died to the round 3 final trans). Final result was 11-9 win to me thanks only to the objective cards. I go way up if that final trans hadn't given him 500+ pts.

RD2 Bretonians: L4 heavens on peg, Lord on Peg, BSB on peg, large unit of pegs, 2 trebs, 2 units of peasant bowmen, 2 lances of KotR.

When he saw my list I knew he was going to run and just drop comets so I did my best to grab as many points as I could in the first two turns as I could. Deployment saw him deploy directly across from me with the pegs and peasant bowmen giving cover to his all his characters and lances. I obviously got first turn and surged forward. I shot the pegs into uselessness and put my reavers in places to kill both trebs turn 2. I put a wound on the Lord. In this game I played my assassinate card. It would be the only card I did not complete all event. His turn 1 he turned everything and ran and dropped a comet in front of my sisters and thus making them back away so no to loose those points and so they wouldn't be able to contribute the rest of the game. Oh and both trebs hit and killed both RBTs on turn 1 ugh... Turn 2 I kill both trebs and both peasant units and put another wound on the general with arcane unforging. Turn 3-5 his runs and I dodge comets. Turn 6 I nailed his lord on peg with a SQ and kill him. Game ends a 13-7 to me.

RD3 High Elves: L4 life w/dwellers on steed, scroll, prince with Giant blade and DS on steed, noble bsb with ogre blade on steed, 24 PG razor, 15 WLs with BotWD, 15ish archers, 12 silver helms, reavers, flame phoenix, maybe an eagle.

I was dreading this match up. Seriously? Final trans and now dwellers? I thought I was a gonner especially when he won the deployment roll and chose the side with both hills on his side and slightly in the middle. He could sit on the other side of the hill and lob dwellers with LOS impunity. Knowing that, I knew I had to push at him as fast as I could. With that said I was forced to charge my PG star into his PG on turn 2 which where toughness 7. Better than eating rd 3 of dwellers. So I did, we tied combat and on my magic phase I drained magic him and then turned my beast mage into a mountain chimera. Do you know how many PG a mountain chimera can kill when standing next to the OTS anointed? 15 haha. Also my sisters and handmaiden killed the flamesphye phoenix in combat haha. I broke that unit and then proceeded to mop up the wrest of the silver helm bus that I had crippled on turn 1 with shooting and the WLs with the prince. game ends with a 20-0 to me. I also played my keep my opponents most expensive unit out of my deployment zone objective card.

3 more rounds to go....tomorrow.

Dan

[Lord Anathir]

I've looked at the comp pack and see it has changed significantly for dwarfs since I've last checked. It seems better now. My apologies.

[Lord Anathir]

Great army, A++ bsb.

[Swordmaster of Hoeth]

Thanks a lot, Daniel! The banners in particular are simply fantastic, very inspirational!

I have just found this topic with army pictures from the US Masters:

http://www.wargamersusa.com/showthread.php?tid=2923

[furbyballer]

Thanks a lot, Daniel! The banners in particular are simply fantastic, very inspirational!

I have just found this topic with army pictures from the US Masters:

http://www.wargamersusa.com/showthread.php?tid=2923

Yeah I am on page 3 of that thread. Thanks for the comments guys.

Daniel

[SpellArcher]

I agree, lovely army, so vibrant!

[Squigkikka]

Holy that freehand

What

Whaaaat

Whaaaaaaat

If I ever had to meet that army in a tournament I'd probably just give up and surrender 0-20 out of shame.

[Hersius]

Daniel easily had one of the best painted armies at the Masters and should of placed in the top 3 for paragon if the system wasn't so skewed for battle.

[Swordmaster of Hoeth]

Hi Hersius!

It is great to see that 1st US Master joined Ulthuan forum! I hope you will find time to tell us about your experiences at this tournament and your amazing performance with your unique army!

Cheers!

[John Rainbow]

Yeah good to see you here. Thanks for posting the link to those pics SM. There's some nice stuff in there.

Also that Banner of Avelorn is awesome!

[Keith]

Daniel easily had one of the best painted armies at the Masters and should of placed in the top 3 for paragon if the system wasn't so skewed for battle.

That will be fixed for next year.

But I agree, I though Dan's, Peyton's, Eoin's and Skaven and Night goblin armies (you know which), were all excellent.

I was hoping to play one of you two(Justin or Dan), Thought I had a decent match against either. Oh well! Maybe next year.

[Motley]

Pictures should be up and fixed.

RD1 Chaos Dwarves: L4 metal, L2 death engineer, 30+ Infernal Guard with Blunderbusses, 2 Iron Demons, 1 Kdai, 1 unit of 3 bull centaurs, and 2 hob goblin khans.

I knew that I would seriously never have a better chance of playing my Blood and Glory objective card so I used it for this first round. Spoiler, I killed that bull centaurs and broke him lol. I new that I could not come anywhere near his blunderbus unit so I deployed around the edges of the map with my PG on the right and my SG and silver helms on the left. It then became six dice final trans monkey game where I was trying as hard as possible to get my PG into combat while at the same time not getting within in range to be gunned down by the 35 blunderbus unit with access to enchanted blades. Finally I pulled his Iron Demon out and his kdai and he charged my PG with both on turn 3. At this point he had power drained his wizard and lost all his spells except searing doom. Over the next 3 turns I ground out both Iron Demons and the Kdai with my PG and anointed (both wizards had died to the round 3 final trans). Final result was 11-9 win to me thanks only to the objective cards. I go way up if that final trans hadn't given him 500+ pts.

RD2 Bretonians: L4 heavens on peg, Lord on Peg, BSB on peg, large unit of pegs, 2 trebs, 2 units of peasant bowmen, 2 lances of KotR.

When he saw my list I knew he was going to run and just drop comets so I did my best to grab as many points as I could in the first two turns as I could. Deployment saw him deploy directly across from me with the pegs and peasant bowmen giving cover to his all his characters and lances. I obviously got first turn and surged forward. I shot the pegs into uselessness and put my reavers in places to kill both trebs turn 2. I put a wound on the Lord. In this game I played my assassinate card. It would be the only card I did not complete all event. His turn 1 he turned everything and ran and dropped a comet in front of my sisters and thus making them back away so no to loose those points and so they wouldn't be able to contribute the rest of the game. Oh and both trebs hit and killed both RBTs on turn 1 ugh... Turn 2 I kill both trebs and both peasant units and put another wound on the general with arcane unforging. Turn 3-5 his runs and I dodge comets. Turn 6 I nailed his lord on peg with a SQ and kill him. Game ends a 13-7 to me.

RD3 High Elves: L4 life w/dwellers on steed, scroll, prince with Giant blade and DS on steed, noble bsb with ogre blade on steed, 24 PG razor, 15 WLs with BotWD, 15ish archers, 12 silver helms, reavers, flame phoenix, maybe an eagle.

I was dreading this match up. Seriously? Final trans and now dwellers? I thought I was a gonner especially when he won the deployment roll and chose the side with both hills on his side and slightly in the middle. He could sit on the other side of the hill and lob dwellers with LOS impunity. Knowing that, I knew I had to push at him as fast as I could. With that said I was forced to charge my PG star into his PG on turn 2 which where toughness 7. Better than eating rd 3 of dwellers. So I did, we tied combat and on my magic phase I drained magic him and then turned my beast mage into a mountain chimera. Do you know how many PG a mountain chimera can kill when standing next to the OTS anointed? 15 haha. Also my sisters and handmaiden killed the flamesphye phoenix in combat haha. I broke that unit and then proceeded to mop up the wrest of the silver helm bus that I had crippled on turn 1 with shooting and the WLs with the prince. game ends with a 20-0 to me. I also played my keep my opponents most expensive unit out of my deployment zone objective card.

3 more rounds to go....tomorrow.

Dan

Hello Dan,

Do you think you will have time to get back to the rest of this? I was enjoying reading it and would like to know more about how you use your list. Such as where do the characters go? All, apart from handmaiden, in PG or some elsewhere?

Many thanks in advance.

[Swordmaster of Hoeth]

+1

I guess we are guilty of not commenting on your games Please, do not think they are not interesting, quite the contrary! I think many readers waited simply for the full story.

Cheers!