Tim's Army Blog - A journey toward being (semi) competitive

[Timharper]

I've never really done anything like this, but thought it would be a good way of keeping track of what is going on in my gaming club tournament so I can reflect and learn even if nobody reads this. The first few posts will be me play testing my army, then my list will settle and I will reflect more on my league games.

For the first playtest game, which was using a new army list but was the 3rd place playoff for last years tournament in the friendly league (the Europa League of SELWG) - we agreed to use new armies as we both would otherwise struggle for play testing time. My opponent took Chaos (an army that had recently beaten the reigning club champion), an army which consisted of:

Daemon Prince of Slanesh (Slaanesh)
Festus the Leechlord (Nurgle)
BSB

18 Warriors of Nurgle
5 Marauder Horsemen
2 Chariots of Nurgle
5 Slanesh Hellstriders
Chimera
2 units of 3 Skullcrushers.

This was up against my army of:

Prince on Star Dragon
Level 4 Archmage (High)
BSB
Noble

17 Silver Helms
2 units of 5 Reavers
4 Bolt Throwers
2 Eagles
Frostheart

The battlefield had a wood in the middle and a Bane Stone (+1 to wound units within 6") but otherwise the terrain was mostly scattered about and didn't play a significant role.

In terms of deployment, I spread my bolt throwers across the table, had an Eagle in each corner, a unit of reavers about 12" in from each side and my Phoenix behind one of the units and my Dragon behind the other. The Silver Helm bus was between the Reavers and Bolt Thrower on my left flank. My opponent placed his army in one large block on his left flank, away from my silver helm bus with his fast cav in front of his warriors with chariots on either side. The rest of his army was spread out behind this block, with his Chimera close to the middle of the table then 2 units of skullcrushers and then his Daemon Prince. His Hellstriders were roughly opposite my silver helm bus.

On reflection, my silver helm bus was a little too far away from the majority of his army, as for the first two magic phases my archmage was out of range of anything significant. However, his deployment caused him more headaches, as he effectively boxed in his skullcrushers, meaning that they played no part in the game at all and he was funnelling his entire army down one corridor of the battlefield, to my advantage.

I had the first turn, and for the most part didn't move too much. All 4 units of fast cav had performed a vanguard so his hellstriders were in charge range of my bus, but I elected not to go for the charge. This turned out to be the right choice as I could cast firey convocation on them, which coupled with my reavers shooting wiped out this unit in the first turn. I was also able to take 3 wounds off the Chimera with my bolt throwers. In his first turn, he moved forward with his horsemen and then the rest of his army shuffled forward, although at this point he seemed more interested in protecting his army than engaging mine. His magic phase killed 3 of my reavers in one unit, forcing them to have random movement in the next turn.

My turn 2 was played out to much the same effect; my silver helms and dragon moved up slightly, but had the wood between them and the bulk of his army. My Phoenix positioned to face the main funnel where his army was heading, next to the wood. The only spell I could get off was Walk Between Worlds on my reavers, putting them near the flank of his skullcrushers. My eagle had flown up to sit in the corner behind his army, "threatening" the rear of his army. My shooting saw my bolt throwers take out his marauder horsemen and wound a skullcrusher; that was it. In his turn he moved both his skullcrushers to face his flanks, aiming at my eagle and reavers. His chariots moved up the charge range of 2 of my bolt throwers and his warriors and Daemon Prince pushed up, as did his Chimera. The only magic he was able to get off forced my Phoenix to have random movement for the next turn.

Turn 3 saw my Phoenix shuffle forward but importantly my silver helm bus positioned so that if he moved to threaten my bolt throwers he would be charged by it and the phoenix. I positioned my smaller unit of reavers so that he couldn;t charge my bolt thrower, and did the same with the eagle that had been in his corner of the battlefield. My larger unit of reavers and my dragon moved so that they were in behind his army, but couldn't be charged and I positioned my other eagle 19" away from his skullcrushers, to activate their frenzy rule. I was able to cast walk between worlds on my phoenix to position it better and finally killed his chimera with bolt throwers. In his turn, he charged and destroyed my eagle and reavers, but not wanting to leave his chariots open to charges by my phoenix and cav bus, he turned them round to face my dragon, and his skullcrushers failed to restrain, lurching 6" toward my eagle.

In turn 4 I pushed my bus to be within 24" of his warriors, and moved my dragon out of the charge arc of his Daemon Prince. My eagle shifted back 6" to keep his skullcrushers entertained, and my reavers moved out of harms way, toward the right flank. My magic phase saw me cast firey convocation on his warriors (who had regen) killing 9. Bolt thrower fire took out another 2, leaving him with no rank bonuses, and my other bolt throwers took a wound off his skullcrushers. He used his turn to try and position his troops to charge me in the next, and his magic phase was used up dispelling my spell, meaning he got nothing else off.

Turn 5 saw me evade him again with my dragon and reavers, but other than that nothing of significance happened, magic cancelled each other out, shooting achieved nothing and there was no combat.

In turn 6, I positioned my dragon to breath on his warriors, but other than that movement was minimal as he couldn't charge me. I cast firey convocation on his warriors, killing 4 of the remaining 9. He failed his leadership test and his warriors fled off the table - 750 points in one fell swoop. At this point he conceded the game.

Reflections on the game:

This was the most tactical game of warhammer I think I have ever played. I realised that I didn't have the ability to beat any of his units in a one to one fight without significant risk. Hoping that I destroyed a unit and wasn't left vulnerable from either a reform or overrun is something that I have only really started considering (perhaps gives an impression of how long I have been away from the game).

PLaying the situation - At the time, I thought that setting up my bus so fr from his main army was a curse as my mage had few spells in range, greatly reducing his effectiveness in the first two turns. However I can now see that it enabled me to dictate the game much more easily as I could move where I wanted rather than have him march ominously toward me. In addition, working out that at the start of my 4th turn I had lost just 155 points of troops and killed over 450 of his, giving me a slight winning margin, meant that I could play much more conservatively than I was used to. Whilst ultimately the margin of victory was some 1000 victory points, this was only really achieved in the final turn with his warriros (400 points) fleeing the table taking his BSB (170 points) and festus (150 points) with them.

Luck evens itself out - both my archmage and his daemon prince miscast on relatively low spells (walk between worlds and the number 1 spell in slaanesh) and both rolled 4 on the miscast table. In both cases, the wizard didn't get sucked down a hole, and it just served as a reminder that luck rarely plays a part in who wins or loses in the scheme of things.

Eagles and Reavers are much better than I ever thought - having read up on the blogs here I was able to use these much more effectively than just hunting wizards and war machines, a revelation in itself.

Bolt Throwers also give great board control - something I had never appreciated before.

The only downside from this battle is the new comp rules our gaming club is placing on high elves for the new tournament. This means that I either have to drop one of the following: 2 bolt throwers, the banner of the world dragon or my frostheart phoenix. If I don't do this, my army list has a maximum points limit of 2400, not 2500.

I face three choices; I can either drop a bolt thrower and the crown of command on my archmage and keep the list roughly the same but at 2,400 points, or drop 2 bolt throwers and then have 10 sisters of averlorn - either in one unit of 10 or 2 units of 5. I am minded to go with the latter option, keeping 2,500 points and having 2 bolt throwers and 2 units of 5 sisters for flexibility. If anyone has got this far and has thoughts, they would be welcome.

Hopefully this was at least partly entertaining, and is the start of many posts to come over the year from me, if for no other reason than it will help me keep track of my thoughts and become a better player!

Here's to 2015...

[SpellArcher]

Thanks for that Tim!

Given that you needed (I think?) a win of any form here, rather than the big win you might be looking for at a tournament say, your strategy seemed spot on. You had the more flexible army and the better at range and you used that to avoid anything like an even fight.

I feel there was a sweet spot with the bus. As you said, you needed to keep a bit of distance for maneouvre. But I guess it would have been good for your magic to impact the game slightly earlier. So a little closer might have been good.

In general I feel Skullcrushers are not what they were. The current game is a lot about flexibility and they fall short there. That said, they still obviously demand respect in combat. Here though, your army had their number I think.

You may well be right about swapping the RBT's for the Sisters. That said, you have the Reavers so you might be able to drop the eagles instead. 2 RBT plus 10 Sisters doesn't give the same heavy board control as 4 RBT. Not sure really.

[Timharper]

You're right - I did just need a win and had although it ended up being quite big had I been playing for points then I might have been a bit more daring.

I think the skullcrushers were hampered majorly by my opponents deployment. He placed them behind his warriors and chariots meaning that they were always going to struggle to get into a position to really threaten. I'm not a chaos player but it seems to me in any situation you don't want to risk getting units that can deal a lot of damage and take a lot of punishment stuck behind infantry, so I guess I was a little fortunate there.

On the army list front, I am unsure what to do really. I think my choices are either to drop one eagle, the musicians on my Reavers and the crown of command from my Archmage in the bus, or replace 2 bolt throwers with sisters. Both seem to have their pluses and minuses - the loss of an eagle would be upsetting but I guess I could live without the musicians and crown. Having the sisters allows me to keep my army on points parity at 2500, and gives me a threat against regen, but loses the flexibility and range of the bolts. It's a shame I can't do more play testing before I have to submit my list in February...

[SpellArcher]

Many events use the 20-0 scoring system. In those you usually need to win by 1500pts to get the 20. Which is why you often see very aggressive play with this lind of list. Of course it pays to know when to ease off too.

A good rule of thumb was that you used to need three re-directors Tim. But in the 50% meta, there are so many flyers that this is no longer so clear. Of course it depends on what armies you are likely to face but I feel the list could afford to lose both eagles. Your solution sounds OK though.

[Timharper]

Thanks for the advice - I think dropping one eagle may be the best way forward. I really liked how my list played and I don't want to mess with it too much.

Our club just awards points for a win of any kind, but that's a new thing this year and I'm going to suggest changing it as it could make for quite boring games...

[Timharper]

So having done the maths, I can either:

Drop an eagle, the crown of command and barding from my Archmage and swap the dragon helm and shield on my prince for the enchanted shield - pros I keep 4 bolt throwers cons my prince loses 2++ against flaming, my Archmage drops a point of armour (but still in second rank) and my silver helm bus loses stubborn.

or

Drop 2 bolt throwers for 10 sisters - pros get to keep 2500 points, so characters, core etc stay same, only drop 2 shots if doing volley fire, gain flaming attacks vs regen, keep both eagles for flexibility cons I lose the board control and impaling shots of 2 bolt throwers

or

Drop 2 bolt throwers for a sky cutter and give my eagles swiftsense pros my eagles actually get better, I gain more manoeuvrability in my army including one flying bolt thrower, albeit less good, and keep 2500 points cons sky utters are no repeaters...

Currently, as I said, unsure of what to do. Will be musing on this for a while I think. Currently leaning toward 1 or 2 though...

[Andros123]

Hi Tim.

I think it is great that you started your own blog to keep track on your games and how your play style develops.

I'm running a setup similar to yours for a upcoming ETC tournament, so I find this very interesting.
If I were you I would drop 2 bolt throwers for the sisters. Getting rid of the crown on command is a huge thing for this kind of list. Now you can move forward with you bus and take a massive punch, and then counter charge with the dragon and phoenix. Without the crown it becomes so much more dangerous.
Normally I would not even consider bringing a skycutter, however in this kind of list, I think it actually might work. Your opponent will not waste any shoots on it when a dragon and a phoenix is flying around. However you should probably not count on its ranged abilities, since it will mostly hit on 5's.

About your chaff (eagles and reavers), do you really need that much? When you have the crown of command and two flying monsters, you shouldn't be that depended on redirecting stuff, no?

I look forward to see how your list develops .

[Timharper]

That is the way I have been leaning - not only does it mean I can stay at 2,500 points but I also get another tactic vs Regen (I know there will be trolls in the tournament).

I possibly don't need that much chaff, although I wouldn't know what to drop either the Reavers or Eagles for - I need the Reavers to make up points in core so could perhaps add some archers and keep the Eagles, or I drop the Eagles and add maybe some more Sisters. I quite like the flexibility of Eagles with their ability to fly, its easier to get out of bad situations or back into good ones, but I take your point about not needing that much chaff possibly. In the last game, they just acted as protection for my bolt throwers and to tempt frenzied troops.

I will have to get my army book out when I get home...

[Timharper]

So I got to considering my list on the walk home from work. My view is that as I have maxed out on characters and am happy with core so I have 620 points to spend in special and rare. I want to take a frostheart and bolt throwers, but given the comp in place I can only take 2 of the latter or I have to write a list for 2400 points and start playing with my characters and heroes again.

So a bottom up approach.

I have 240 points therefore to spend on special and rare. Without any comp I would have spent this on 2 eagles and 2 more bolt throwers. However that is no longer an option. My most recent thinking therefore was to get the eagles and a unit of sisters, but discussion on here makes me wonder whether 2 more units of chaff on top of my Reavers is necessary. Sisters would help against regen but don't offer the impaling shot of a bolt thrower. So I considered 2 skycutters. They maintain the manoeuvrability of my army, allow impaling shots (although a lot worse) and add an extra dimension to my combat ability.

But I'm now considering taking a Phoenix, probably another frostheart, which would use the points exactly. This would hugely reduce my ranged effectivess, the worst of all the options. However, 2 phoenixes. And a star dragon. Hmmmmm.

As an aside I already like having somewhere to record my inner musings but appreciate it may not be gripping reading, so apologies if that is the case.

[sparkytrypod]

always good to see a new blog, keep with it!

id drop the eagles, with the change to lords allowance, less units need to be redirected. also morecharacters usually means more flyers depending on your meta, in this light eagleshave limited use now I believe.

[Timharper]

So today was my first chance to try out my slightly revised army list since January (having a 2 and half daughter and a 4 month old son somewhat limits my chances to get out and play). It was also my last practice game before my club tournament kicks off in earnest, so I wanted to try and a) ensure I was happy with my list and b) try and find out some more of its strengths and weaknesses.

I played a dwarf army that consisted of:

Dwarf King on a shield in a unit of 20 warriors with great weapons
Thane BSB in a unit of 20 longbeards
Runesmith in a unit of 20 ironbreakers
20 Quarrelers
Dragon Slayer in a unit of 16 troll slayers
Gryocopter
Cannon
Stone Thrower

Against my army which was:

Prince on a Star Dragon
Archmage (High), Noble BSB, Noble (Ogre Blade) in a unit of 17 Silver Helms
2 units of 5 Reavers with bows
2 Bolt Throwers
2 Frostheart Phoenixes

We operate a policy in our club of playing open lists, and when I sent my opponent mine earlier in the week his reaction was "wow, that is fast and hits hard". Thankfully he didn't write a list to specifically counter it, so it was war machine light, shooting light etc. The guy I was playing hates playing gun lines and is trying to see if for the tournament he can run a dwarf horde (says all you need to know really....)

I must admit I again didn't deploy very well - his army was focussed on one flank but I put my prince and one frosty on the other, to get round the back of a building to where his warrior unit was hiding, leaving the rest of my army basically opposite his. I think that I should have in hindsight kepy my army all together opposite his - the lack of real shooting threat meant that I just needed to engage quickly, and none of his unit really posed a signifcant combat threat, each of them being medium in size.

I can't recall all the subtleties of the battle, as I am useless at that, but thought it easiest if I record what happened to each of the units in my army throughout the game to give an overall sense of how the battle unfolded.

My silver helm bus was shot in the first turn by his crossbows - needing 5s to hit he somehow got 10 hits, which needing 3s to wound and then me having a 3+ save should still have only resulted in 2 deaths. Somehow I managed to lose the entire back rank, taking my unit of 20 down to 15. In my first turn I moved this unit up toward his battle line, and protected it with my reavers from his crossbows so I didn't get shot any more. Unfortunately, I had positioned my bus just 11 inches from his longbeards, a rookie mistake I admit, and he got to charge me. At this point, I almost threw in the towel for the unit, thinking I had no chance, however having the strength 6 noble and the archmage reliably getting 1-2 spells off a turn meant that over the 5 rounds of combat I was able to grind the unit down, and also take out 6 slayers who charged me on the 3rd round of combat, although I was left with just the champion and my characters by then end - by no means as bad as it could have got! Following the end of combat, this unit spun round to face the ironbreakers who had managed to get in behind them ready to charge, and my mage decided that now was a good time to miscast on fiery convocation and get sucked down a black hole. Lucky that was my 5th turn, and the ironbreakers were all he had left, and they didn't manage to do anything in the last turn. However, he had managed to cast this spell successfully a number of times, reducing the unit of slayers and crossbows to a more manageable contingent, so he defintely wasn't a total failure.

One of my phoenixes got hit by a cannon. Twice. It died.

The other of my phoenixes was more lucky, making his gyrocopter flee, wiping out his crossbowmen on the 3rd turn, his canon on the 4th and his stone thrower on the 5th.

My reavers just moved to shiled my helm bus, and got charged and shot to death, valiant effort though they made.

My bolt throwers were largely ineffective, killing a few iron breakers and a few slayers. It was not the sort of game where they could really shine, and their high point was definitely that one of them twice survived direct hits from the stone thrower. Just for the lolz.

My prince was very effective, and I was able to see for the first time just how deadly the dragon can be against infantry. On my second turn he charged the warrior unit with the Dwarf Lord in. The lord challenged me and somehow despite suffering 6 or 7 wounds he managed to save all bar 2 or them, even with my prince and dragon at S7 reducing him to either just a 4++ or a 5+ followed by 4++, which he had to re-roll because of the other tricksters shard. I lost due to static combat resolution and fled, but for some reason he didn't charge me on his turn or the turn after I rallied (he wanted to shoot me) - meaning I was able to recharge and this time I killed his Lord in the challenge (although only on the thunderstomp when he failed his re-roll ward saves). It was the 5th round of combat that was most excellent, with the dragon and prince between them killing all bar 6 of the dwarf warriors, a combination of attacks, thunderstomp and breath weapons.

So overall, a mighty victory for the elves - lots of dead silverhelms and reavers, but the dragon, bolt throwers and phoenix survning alongside the noble and BSB to fight another day - in comparison the dwarves were reduced to a few remaining iron breakers facing a charge from the phoenix.

I think I continue to learn valuable lessons here - I need to get better at my deployment, and I think that this will come with experience. I also need to learn the rules better; I was unsure what happened if I refused the challenge with my prince, as my preference would always have been to fight his infantry over his lord, but I was worried I would get no attacks if I declined. I also wasn't sure whether my thunderstomp attacks in a challenge went on the unit or the lord - we played the lord but again this was something I was unclear on (but ultimately worked in my favour).

Taking 2 frost hearts was definitely the thing to do given my list deliberations from last month - the increased flexibility it gives me over the other options is fantastic, and they 3 flying monsters acted as a real threat.

My magic was really useful this time round; I didn't have the best spells and could have done with having walk between worlds, but overall magic worked well for me.

I think the biggest revelation was the ability of my helm bus to grind out a combat in a way I have never seen a high elf unit do before. Each turn it faced 11 strength 6 attacks hitting on 3s, but it managed to last 5 rounds of combat and reduce the enemy to zero; I don't think many other units I could have taken would have lasted so well, especially after losing 25% of the models before they had even had chance to move.

Overall, I took the game as a good win, albeit against a medium strength army and generating some very real learning for me. Hopefully I can take this forward to the tournament which kicks off in 2 weeks time. And at least my shaky performance wasn't reflected by the England rugby team, who thankfully managed to grind out a win against the Welsh - a result I didn't see coming at all!