NicoLab

Final thoughts

I came 24th in the end - I chose to gamble for the Major Victory in game 5 instead of taking the safe Minor and that was the consequence. I was pleased with the list - it had worked well even against seriously strong lists.

I killed and crippled this lot:

• 2 Stonelords in game two;
• a Husktusk and crippled a Stonelord in game 3;
• another Stonelord and Husktusk in game 5;
• a Thundertusk and crippled a Stonelord in game 6.

More importantly (for it is He!), Gordrakk only managed to kill 300 points across 6 games:

Gordrakk Cumulative Kill Index = 300 points

A lot of this was down to the match ups, which forced me to use Gordrakk as a reserve or second wave. However, his inconvenient base size, inability to claim cover or hide behind anything that isn't the size of a Skull Keep and lack of magic all point towards a cost reduction in GH v2.0. While his damage output is phenomenal and he can obliterate Wizard Heroes, it's only marginally better than that of a Stonelord with Battlebrew (which is also a lot tougher, routinely makes a 24" effective charge; and is on a smaller base). If you take Gordrakk, you have to get full value out of the Command Ability, which doesn't seem possible in a pure Ironjawz Allegiance.

On the train back, my massively overstimulated head (after 3 epic days of Hobby!) started spitting out list ideas, one of which would become #Casinostrike after a few weeks experimentation back at the lab in utmost secrecy.

Epilogue

Max was the only undefeated player at the event and beat Terry Pike in a fascinating game on the top table. He ultimately came third, but this was an awesome achievement! Well done Sir @grunnlock

His list and the very same models went on to triumph at Heat One in Craig Namvar's capable hands. 

Blood & Glory was perhaps the high water mark for Destruction (Peak Destruction) - pending Grot Scuttlebags...? The December FAQ took out all of their older battalions in one fell swoop, including the Great Gitmob (and thus took out my list). #LongLiveTheHoodedVillain. Nasty Skulkers were nerfed (but at least the timing of their attacks was clarified in their favour). Fanatics were nerfed (but not as much as people think - see FAQs on page 4 here, which explains the point:

DoT have brought Chaos back up to parity with Mixed Destruction, Mixed Order and Stormcast. Stormcast have received a massive shot in the arm too. I'd say it's too early to see what will be the strongest type of list at SCGT. I'm concerned that pew pew is (as I've long predicted) going to become dominant.

Spamming Skyfires with 180 points of Battleline (taking over from Kurnoth Hunters plus Hurricanum Mixed Order) is going to become the meta (which is seriously dismal for a game that should be more about melee combat and magic). Personally I'm going for 9 Enlightened (with fewer Skyfires in case I need to use them in a Battalion). Stormcast have some Traits (Shielded by Faith; Staunch Defender; artefacts - Mirrorshield; the Lantern of the Tempest; and Prayers (Divine Light), which mitigate Skyfire spam, but I doubt that this will stop people spamming pew pew filth. Raptor spam is also another potentially dismal development.

If I had to make a prediction, I'd guess that a Hallowed Knights Stormcast List with heavy amounts of Raptors and Judicators would take out the SCGT (no Raptors in the lab at the moment....), but maybe someone will surprise us all.