Turragor Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Tänkte att skapa tråd och berätta hur det gick för mig - en som har aldrig varit med i en turnering - i Umeå. Ska ta det i engelska för det mesta föratt det blir bara lättare att förklara ordentligt. Trådet kommer bli updatterad när jag har tid att översätta mina notes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted October 11, 2016 Author Share Posted October 11, 2016 A little preamble - this being my first tournament and with only maybe 6 games of AoS under my belt I was under no illusions about losing a lot. I've painted enough models to field quite a few Stormcast lists - namely, some of their best formations (lightning striking) including Hammerstrike Force, Warrior Brotherhood and Skyborne Slayers. When it came to my list I figured that, even if I took a great one I wouldn't finish well as I just don't have the experience yet. So I figured that one thing I could do was show off the biggest and best things I have painted and experiment with things that those in more active tournament scenes (mainly UK posters in these forums) say don't work. So my list began to form. A kind of traditional army list - cavalry, infantry and ranged. How would it do? The list Lord Celestant on Stardrake Lord Celestant on Dracoth Lord Relictor Judicators 5 Special bow on prime Judicators 5 Special crossbow Liberators 5 Special on prime Concussors 2 Protectors 5 Starsoul maces x 2 Decimators 5 Starsoul maces x 2 How'd The Units Do? The LCoSD was the big distraction with a surprise or two for opponents who had rarely seen him. I played aggressively with this model. Too aggressively on reflection, I was using a 600 pt model as a tank and I can definitely think of better uses for him. Even so, I really liked the options this model gives. Rain of Stars can be really useful for (above all) artillery and heroes or units camping far off objectives. You can straight up eat 3 models every combat phase provided you roll over their wounds. You pick the model. This means I could eat champion, banner bearer, special weapon bearer or musician. I politely asked each opponent to read the rule to see if they agreed with my interpretation (they dont pick the eaten model) to be sure and all agreed. The shield. I love the shield! I 'accidentally' got into one massive train wreck with the Stardrake alone against varanguard, blightkings, a herald of nurgle, Chaos knights and chaos marauders. The mortalwound reflect took out nearly as many as the mount and rider. The downside to all this was that this guy is 600 points and I was using him in such a way that he always died. But I can't see a way around this. I needed to get my points cost from him and I hesitantly believe I did in all but a few cases where I did something stupid. I also think against other lists, net lists with mortal wounds from everywhere, he's an instant waste of 600 pts but that might be the case for any big model you take - or elite unit for that matter - against those lists. My LCoD mostly disappointed. I think this is because I was so aggressive with charges on my first or 2nd turn. And so naive with choosing the targets. I would (if I didn't fluff charges like game 1) have the LCoSD, LCoD and Concussors in combat. I often chose 2 or 3 good units meaning I gave up free hits on a nice unit during one or more of my opponents activations. Opponents usually chose the Stardrake but my LCoD took wounds too. I did much better game 5 (last game) with charge selections and setup. I should always choose one strong and one nearby weak (if I have to) charge target. And be very careful with the engages and pile ins. My Lord Relictor didn't do much. But I think in this list, unless I take like a Witch Hunter, I need an under 100 pt 3rd hero for 3 places of power. He also did heal the stardrake a few times but it was more a moral knock against opponents trying to take it down. I could also have made more use of his lightning storm tbh. My Judicators proved strong when I didn't make a deployment or movement mistake opening them up to charges. I love the crossbow but 12 inch range on it doesnt work. It's a ranged starsoul mace against most units of 5 or more models, basically. But you get too close. I'll be painting another bow judicator and converting the prime in that unit to a bow special. They really need to focus units together too. My 1 unit of liberators proved useful in a few cases, tanking pretty well to defend objectives. Otherwise they didnt do much. My protectors disappointed. I got them into combat with an Archaon in 2 games and the glaives made limited impact. To be fair in 1 Archaon had a 2+ save with mystic shield. I have to remember that they are monstrous even against non-monsters. I don't need to get all excited for some monster unit somewhere that requires a 10 inch charge when, really, they can smash into the horde or elite unit nearby instead. My decimators didn't meet many hordes but made more of an impact than the protectors. I think this is due to not getting tunnel vision like I did with the protectors. The concussors were a pretty solid choice. With the Stardrake command ability they had a little extra punch and their 3+ rerollable is strong. They're also mobile in this list. I might replace with fulminators for a 2+ rerollable against ranged but I do like the maces after the charge. It's a tough call. Thoughts on the list I guess its not what ppl expect with stormcast and that can be refreshing. I like it too but I havent even tried teleporty lists much yet. All in all I made so many mistakes and forgot so many things. I was the weakest element probably. I can't really judge it. I'm actually tempted to tweak this list and take it to another tournament. Ive got some ideas. Then again as I played soso I was falling down the table numbers all the time so wasnt up against tough netlist type forces. So I dunno how it'd do with a good list and a good player even if I play well and do the right thing. What I really liked was the ranged options funnily enough. Relictor, LCoSD, Concussors and LCoD managed to wrack up the wounds 4+s to do d3 mortal. Then the Juds whittled down some more. I think thats maybe the focus to go for here. A linebreaking charge army. And in that sense more Dracothian guard would do the trick. Will I opt for a new army? I have been pondering this. Part of me wants to do something crazy and I think what I will do is do that but also continue adding a bit of stormcast here and there. I like the idea of using stormcast in a competitive scene for a long while, I can get a real nuanced feel for what they are good at then. When I get a chance I'll get reports on the 5 battles and some photos added to this thread! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted October 12, 2016 Author Share Posted October 12, 2016 Battle 1 Battle 1 was against a Stormcast army but perhaps a more traditional one. Scenario Take and Hold Opponent's List Lord Celestant on Dracoth Lord Relictor Knight Vexillor Lord Castellant 2 Concussors 3 x 5 Judicators 2 x 5 Liberators 10 Retributors Artefacts and Traits We rolled for artefacts and traits all tournament. This game I got Legendary Figher and Quicksilver potion. My LCoSD should have been a real force to be reckoned with. Deployment I got to deploy first (and would finish deploying first so the opponent would go first). With that in mind the first deployment of the tournament saw me make a few very silly errors. I deployed 5 units deep with the logic that these were units that wouldn't need to move so much or could move a lot (cavalry) and they'd be out of his juds range first turn. I then deployed 3 units on my deployment line (making them a juicy target tbh) that needed to move forward more quickly. I was also wary of his classic ret bomb. If I were him I'd do it turn one into the juiciest target. So I deployed in a way that I thought would mean there'd be no room for a vex banner drop. Joke was on me, I'd misremembered the minimum setup range from the enemy the banner required... Even so, in principle this was sound theory but in reality many mistakes were made. I split my judicators I deployed my juds at table edge. Why?! I should have measured just outside 29inches (jud threat range) to his deployment line I left the protectors in the open thinking they'd attract range fire and would be safest with their -1 to hit I split my fast moving units too much, 10 rets hasn't that scary a reach without being ineffective I spread everything out incorrectly I could probably have bunched and moved as one and been much more effective I kind of had no firm plan for defense and attack and it was take and hold The battle I let my opponent go first. He edged juds into range and took out 1 protector to 2 units of juds and 1 decimator to 1 unit of juds. This could have been worse but it didn't need to happen at all if I deployed correctly. He moved some of his melee units to shield his judicators better. In my first turn I ran most of my units forward as I had like a stupid mushroom deployed my range out of range entirely. The good news was that the LCoD, LCoSD and Concussors got into charge range of his troops around his objective. How direct I was being. I won the double turn here which was the plan except I'd royally stuffed my first turn via deployment so I effectively got to reposition ranged... However, the tingly breath of the lizards combined with the judicators made a decent dent in his ranged. 6 judicators fell. I entered the charge phase confident that if the star-dracoth team made it there would be a mess. I promptly failed all charges but the LCoSD's. "No matter, he is my tank and he will kill like, these liberators that are the only thing in range," I thought. I think he ate 3 and killed 1... I also can't remember why I charged the liberators. Or got so close to the retributors, who were JOGGING towards my army, with my concussors. Anyway, in my opponent's next turn he shot up my dragon a little and charged. I activated my potion of quicksilver to try to kill the concussors and I get one. He proceeded to kill my concussors. If my deployment and fluffed charges were my coffin, my opponent winning the double turn would be the nails. The Stardrake is killed but I do make a dent in his army in my activations. Another crucial error here, I'm not finishing off units. Priority is exchanged again and I make it round the flank with the LCoD looking for his relictor and the rest of his judicators near my opponents objective. The decimators make a long charge to join in too. I am never going to clear it with the reduced army though... Meanwhile I form a pretty wall with my liberators and judicators. This wall is badly made as I have not fully understood how piling in works - or so it seems. Recalling these games is like recalling a different person playing, you learn that much over the course of even 5 games! It really was awesome in that sense. I've got a note down here towards the end of the game in a shaky hand 'General dead too'... But my general was already dead and I don't think I managed to kill his. Maybe I did? I think if anything his fell off his mount and landed on his tempestos hammer. My opponent once again gets a double turn going into the 5th round and I am well and truly shafted by now but still having a laugh! Hey it might be a minor loss or a draw at this rate... HE USES HIS RET BOMB TO TRAVEL MAYBE 7 INCHES with a damaged ret unit. The AOE lands gets mortal wounds on everyone around my objective. He obliterates my Lord Relictor and Judicators but can't reach my 2nd Jud unit that I smartly (hey a not dumb thing!) kept as far back but still in range of the objective. My last turn is, appropriately, ineffectual. Result 12 -8 loss The rules pack we were playing under granted a score of 15 to the winner for a major victory and 5 to the loser. Anything else was a 10 - 10 split. You then counted up the difference in points killed to transfer points from the player who had died the most to the player that had did the most deading. So we started at 10-10 as there was no major victor. And we began racking up our points. In the end I gave away 2 from my score as I lost between 600 and 899 points more than my opponent. In terms of recovering what I could after my early game mistakes I could have had this 11-9 or even a dead even 10-10 if I chose targets better. I left some units alive piecemeal, meaning I got no points for them. If I'd let things hitting me hit me and still focused on those units I may have made up that point deficit. Lessons I am almost too weary to type thinking of all the things I have now learned from this game. I want to laugh and or cry thinking about how it took me 3 more games to truly think, process and apply them. Again I don't think that is odd, tournaments are amazing fun and hectic and there's not much time to process. You play as you have been playing before (for me, like a noob) and learn slowly. I think now, especially doing this, I really cement lessons learned. Well I hope so. Battle report 2 will be coming soon TM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratatatata Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Really fun to read, keep 'em coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted October 17, 2016 Author Share Posted October 17, 2016 Battle 2 Battle 2 was against a Stormcast army with a few specific (and known) tricks. Luckily these weren't used to the full effect or I would have been deaded much faster. Scenario Border War Opponent's List Celestant Prime Lord Celestant Knight Vexillor Knight Heraldor Celestial Hurricanum with Battlemage 2 x 5 Judicators 5 Liberators 5 Retributors 5 Retributors I gotta say, 1100 points of heroes was more than even I had with the big and small lizard brothers! You will also note that none of his retributors had starsoul maces. With +2 to hit I think this would have been a decent call, except I don't think he remembered (or needed) to stack the celestant and hurricanum effects during the battle iirc. Artefacts and Traits We rolled for artefacts and traits all tournament. This game I got Inspiring and Talisman of Blinding Light, both of which I immediately forgot existed apparently. I know I could have saved some battleshock losses for sure and the Talisman could have kept the big lizard up another round. Deployment I got to deploy first (and would finish deploying first so the opponent would go first). I was still processing lessons from last time so deployment was still riddled with errors like blue cheese with mould. Or more accurately, two bits of mould. Two enormous bits of mould and almost no cheese. I was glad he hadn't the classic 10 rets so the Vexillor couldn't deliver that devastating a bomb turn 1. I also anticipated he would wait a few turns with the prime to kill my Drake (actually he was the other kind of Prime player). So I wasn't worried about early ports. So I deployed on the right pretty satisfactorily all things considered. The left was actually alright in principle too EXCEPT I forgot that he had the heraldor and I just setup 1300 points of models around one bit of terrain that would soon shake, shake, shake. I think the most foolish decision, ever, in the history of AoS, probably by anyone, was to not deploy on or near my own border objective and to give up the first turn. In theory I thought I would be moving up and he wasn't porting early. His deployment was not actually something amazing but it didn't need to be as we will see. NB the coke can is his and I am not sure if he was trying to convince me there was extra cover or if it was just some kind of mind game or product placement. You can see how long it stands in that spot yourselves! The battle I let my opponent go first. He cast a few spells. He looked at my border objective and, well he did not scratch his head physically but I could tell that head scratching was the most accurate summary for his feelings. He called the prime down on the objective immediately. He edged some ranged forward including the heraldor. Everything else ran towards the objectives and me. The shooting phase saw a few peppering shots from the Judicators with a few wounds lost (no models that I recall) but it was the prime and the heraldor that did the damage. They targeted the clump around the rock outcrop. The Prime aimed a bit more to my right to catch the Judicator unit. Luckily the Heraldor didn't roll so well (saving my LCoSD from damage) but the Prime was all '****** you I can choose the value of this d6 and I choose SIX I bet you didn't see that coming?!' My Concussors, LCoD and Decimators were most troubled by this. Combined with the earlier judicator wounds I lost 4 decimators and took 4 wounds on 1 concussor and FIVE! on my LCoD. Big lizard brother wept. The prime then made the charge to the remaining Judicators and killed them all for looking at him and thinking 'truly, truly fabulous!'. I began my first turn with a feeling of profound sadness over my actions. I then cheered up when I realised I could move and charge my LCoSD and Concussors into the lone Heraldor in front of a cliff. I also decided that the prime had to die, no matter the cost. In my short hero phase my Relictor opened the first salvo in this quest, praying to Sigmar to kill Sigmar's chosen representative. Sigmar, for some totally unknown reason, refused. I advanced the rest of my forces on the right wondering if I could snipe the Vexillor before any Vexillor hijinx. My LCoD and my Concussors breathed lightning, sweet lightning from that dragon god guy - not that Sigmar tease - all over that trumpet blowing cretin and the supreme winged dude on a bunch of purple onion rings. Dragon lightning is better than beardy gold manchest lightning any day and it knocked a few wounds off the prime and totally fried the heraldor. No massive lizard cliff crush for him, he probably got off easy. My Stardrake sent small comets down from on high, totally bypassing Sigmar's attempted monopoly on lightning. I think I managed to chip a few wounds off his Vex, Hurricanum and Celestant. In the next turn I charged the Prime with the 3 models near him and managed to reach all he took a wound off my relictor before the three musketeers blew him to smithereens. The lizards of purest justice smashed upon the flank of the clearly unjust Stormcast and the Stardrake started eating crunchy on the outside, melt in your mouth on the inside goldenchest treats. The Hurricanum showed my Stardrake what a real comet and ranged attack could do but luckily it didn't kill him just yet. Sigmar's massive can of coke fell back, humbled, at this point too. I count that as my true victory during this match. All this action in the centre and the left and on the right... Or perhaps better summed up as: In any case, the paladins were slowly creeping towards an immensely inappropriate golden orgy. Back to the report. The game ground into round 3 and I took quite a toll on my opponent. Not without losses but I had already been blunted. This was a theme to be repeated. I'd be losing but damage would be flying out. If I'd landed clean I don't know how much of an impact I could make. For a while I held my central objective and the left objective. My opponent had their centre and the right. I was scraping together some points. From a hopeless early score of 9 to 1 against to a slightly less hopeless (only slightly) 19 to 11 against. If I took everything I could still win. However... a mistake had already been made. The mistake that would be devastating in the 4th and final round of the game was that I forgot the Vexillor. My objective awareness was terrible. I'd rushed everything forward from the left and slowly pressed on to the right. I'd left 500 points worth of 3 super damaged units in my own centre. All my opponent had to do was bomb 5 rets onto the wounded relictor, LCoD and remaining Starsoul mace decimator, kill them, rack up the objective score and bag a handy 500 points kill points. This he duly did. After this there was a last flash of resistance but that was it. My tabling followed soon after. Objective score 26 to 14 against. Result The rules pack we were playing under granted a score of 15 to the winner for a major victory and 5 to the loser. Anything else was a 10 - 10 split. You then counted up the difference in points killed to transfer points from the player who had died the most to the player that did the most deading. Whilst I had made up for my terrible start in some respects I had completely lost on all fronts. This was my worst loss of the tournament by the reckoning of the rules pack. An 18-2 defeat. Interestingly, there were a lot of 20-0 results (major victory and a 1500+ points difference in units left) in the tables already and I think if I hadn't such a durable and hard hitting element to my army, I'd probably have easily suffered a greater than 1500 points kill points difference here. Lessons Deployment, again, was a weak aspect of my game. Ironically, given the stormcast before me, my awareness of my opponents exact ranges and abilities was shocking. Again these are down to the 'first tournament' effect. I was giddy with excitement to be there tbh My opponent was much better at salvaging kill points his judicator units didn't die and he escaped with his celestial hurricanum on rather few wounds. Most importantly I was again asswhooped based on my poor objective management. You may note that even so close to the game's end, the 'can of coke' warscroll was still in play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nico Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Quote The shield. I love the shield! I 'accidentally' got into one massive train wreck with the Stardrake alone against varanguard, blightkings, a herald of nurgle, Chaos knights and chaos marauders. Blightkings just love that shield.... Good battle report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamopower Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 Nice army. How was the tournament overall? You seem to have bigger scene there than we here across the narrow sea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted October 19, 2016 Author Share Posted October 19, 2016 1 hour ago, Jamopower said: Nice army. How was the tournament overall? You seem to have bigger scene there than we here across the narrow sea. It was ace. 40 registered but I think only 36 made it. Was 2nd biggest game (of 4 systems) at the event. First being 40k ofc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted October 20, 2016 Author Share Posted October 20, 2016 Battle 3 Battle 3. Ohhhh Battle 3! Probably my favourite battle. I was against a destruction army. Mostly moonclan with Gordrakk himself and a mangler squig unit. A man after my own heart with some big monsters. I really liked Mattias - my opponent for this game - probably my nicest match up, good times were had and the game was close! I loved his moonclan army and was impressed to hear it was like a matter of months painting for 100+ models. Gordrakk's base was awesome! Scenario Blood and glory Opponent's List (note I am a bit hazy when a force isn't stormcast and haven't seen the opponent's list) Gordrakk the fist of Gork Grot Warboss Moonclan Moonclan grot shaman Moonclan grot shaman 20 Moonclan grots 20 Moonclan grots with 1 fanatic 40 Moonclan grots with 1 fanatic 10 Ardboyz Mangler Squigs Doom Diver Catapult Artefacts and Traits We rolled for artefacts and traits all tournament. This game I got Strategic Genius and Hoarfrost, both of which I again immediately forgot existed. Strategic genius would have been almost no use. I am not sure about hoarfrost though. You'll see what happens to the stardrake and I don't think the hoarfrost hit penalty would have helped the way things played out. Deployment I got to deploy first (and would finish deploying first so the opponent would go first) and a picture paints a thousand words. Lessons were starting to sink in: Units were on the deployment line The objectives were controlled turn 1 (kind of unnecessary in this scenario though, so the lesson that I pay attention to the specific scenarios rules wasn't quite there yet) The Judicators were deployed together The Cavalry was not all bunched up but not all separated One old mistake crept back in here though (a common mistake from games before the tournament): Deploying Paladins on a flank. These are not the units to sweep in and down the enemy lines! They are stuck on that flank. The battle I let my opponent go first. His shaman ate some mushrooms and got high. He edged his units forward with the destruction battle trait and then ran everything forward. The doomdiver catapult targeted my liberators, missed and rolled to successfully divert to my protectors which took no damage in the end. In my turn I edged my judicators forward and moved almost everything. My opponents battle trait and run movement had left everything within possible charge range (long shots in some cases). In the shooting phase my stardrake had his first artillery team to target with rain of stars and all crew were removed along with a few wounds on a shaman. A lesson - when points matter it is a good idea to chip away at the artillery piece itself. In this game I neutralised it and ignored it thus getting no points for its loss. The rest of the drakes combined with the judicators did not overly impress with their missile fire. Now, I had never played moonclan and had misunderstood how fanatics worked. I thought they popped out when their unit received a charge. First lesson of the game was that the moonclan player activates them and charges and attacks. So my concussors and Stardrake were pinned and unfortunately the Stardrake suffered a chunk of damage. I was unable to make the remaining charges save one (the LCoD) and I declined to charge just one unit in when I wasn't sure of who was going next. I won the double turn here meaning the fanatics activity was partly nullified - still they are pretty nice! In my oh so short hero phase I managed to fail the roll to heal the Stardrake with the Lord Relictor I reapplied the stardrake's reroll failed wounds to himself and the dracoths. In most cases I moved within 3" for almost guaranteed charges and peppered his army in the shooting phase sinking a few more moonclan. In retrospect I should have had all guns on the mangler then gordrakk or vice versa. I was going to kill at least one moonclan unit in combat immediately anyway - or so I thought. I got 4 charges in in the combat phase and opened with the stardrake who ate 3 moonclan and then managed to miss most of his attacks killing maybe 9 total. Netters are real ******! My opponent was a sport and said he'd just taken the recommended (box content) number. He wasn't sure if you could just have units of only netters bar champions, standards and musicians always giving opponents the to hit penalty from any approach. Though my opener was disappointing the response from the moonclan against my decimators was less than stellar. I activated the decimators next - it was one of the only times in this tournament they met a unit with more than 10 - and almost all the goblins disappeared. I did not need to charge concussors and decimators into 20 moonclan. That was foolish of me. I am going to assume I couldn't make the charge with the concussors into the 40 unit or had some other "really good" reason. My LCoD had better luck against the netters in the big moonclan unit. It was reduced in effectiveness now but I had thought I'd have been able to shift it under their combined weight. There were some battleshock losses on the side of the moonclan and then it was my opponents turn. This turn it was the turn of the gobbo beasties. A smattering of spells or spell attempts and some movement on my left flank where the liberators held in front of the objective and took a charge of 20 grots, and then in swept Gordrakk and the mangler squigs. Luckily I had some kind of idea about Gordrakks special ability and had positioned so as to avoid some ricocheting deadly charging. The Stardrake was going to meet him face to face! This was going to be cool no matter what happened! An exchange of mighty beasts! Each bashing each other and - Oh ******, wait, the Stardrake already took a fanatic ball in the nuts! Of course my opponent activated Gordrakk first. He assaulted my Stardrake who with a mere 11 wounds left was probably saying 'Look mate, wait a minute'. I thought that this would be it, the stardrake was going to die. The most epic moment of the tournament so far over in a flash. However, the extra 100 points for that shield on the Lord Celestant version saved him with a few rerolls that also reflected a few mortal wounds to Gordrakk and the grots. A wound left! Come on you ******. I was elated! The Stardrake was activated and, well, poor luck along with a reduced stat line struck. He ate a grot and managed to chip a wound off Gordrakk. Okay, 9 wounds vs 3 (2 reflected). Not great! My opponent activated his Mangler and whaled on my LCoD. I was feeling like I had for sure activated the wrong unit first - I had thought my opponent would opt for the Moonclan to try to chip 1 wound off the Stardrake right away. Well he didn't. Mangler squigs attack quite a lot but my LCoD had some great save rolls. Except for 2s. I don't think I even got a single 1 to reroll. Now I was faced with a tough choice - try to kill the Mangler squid or try to dampen the remaining grots who could now kill 2 high cost heroes with their ****** little spears and nets. I opted for the grots but - wait what?! The Mangler Squig isn't actually done with attacks yet there's another weapon stat line? Jeebuz. Okay, well that's that dilemma taken care of. Bye bye small lizard brother. Dragon tears flowing again. So, what happened next. Well them there grots piled into my Stardrake as you can see but, I mean, he needed to hit and wound and I needed to roll a 2 or a 1 then a 2 to suffer that single wound. I was secretly, quietly, maybe a bit smugly confident the Stardrake might even get to retreat behind the protectors if I won the next initiative roll. Maybe get a heal from the Lord Relictor and barrel in to kill Gordrakk and the Mangler. Amazing! Well I ended up needing to make one save and: Out of alllll those dice in the picture I chose THAT one. I truly rolled awfully in a few games this tournament. Terribly. I mean, my luck was awful to below average until game 5... Here's a sample of one roll of five dice from this very game: I can't remember what that was for but I know whatever it was it didn't work. Shocking! Anyway: I don't think I expected this to happen this round. The centre is reeling. I think I could have been in real trouble here if my opponent got the double turn (another potential future lesson) but luckily and ironically I rolled a 5 (tied) then a 6 or something like that. My liberators held, I made some moves and shot some more token missile damage (shooting and saves let me down this game) including 3 mortal wounds on the mangler from the concussors and I charged the protectors, relictor and concussors. My decimators had to take the deep objective on my right. This is a weakness in my list and my deployment, a 200 pt horde killy elite unit had to try to take an objective and kill a shaman who could just run and take it back. What I should have done was taken it with the concussors who would have reached the shaman and rolled down the flank. Instead of the decimators who were never going to catch anything. Now to see if these protectors can do, like, anything they are supposed to. ' Nooot bad. However he managed to save the d6 damage wound that I got through. Blast. His answering barrage only took out 2 paladins though. I was satisfied with this exchange to be honest. My Relictor and Concussors made a dent and then wiped out the rest of the big grot unit. Think, think how much time and energy, turns and points, that unit took up. I am impressed with horde units but can't stomach the idea of painting them. Ill build a horde army slowly, like over 5 years. When my opponent took his next turn, my reluctance to engage the mangler squig that you can see in the image above, would backfire drastically as you can see in the image below: You will also note that my liberators have been joined by the ardboyz because the grots cannot kill them and they cannot hit that many of those little ****** with all the netters. I was actually proud of my positioning because the grots couldnt swarm them and take the objective by numbers, the liberators had to die. With the ardboyz in the picture that wasnt so certain. At this point I'd only lost 3 or 4 infantry but also my stardrake and LCoD. The Mangler squig took out one whole unit of judicators but lost a few more wounds. Gordrakk took out the 3 remaining protectors. The combined weight of ardboyz and grots took out 2 more liberators but, I mean, in this game they really proved their durability. I won the roll for initiative again keeping the same turn order. The game continued in this fashion with our reduced and defanged forces rendered incapable of taking the objectives left to claim a major victory. I managed to kill Gordrakk and the Mangler squig. My decimators had a real fun time trying to catch the last shaman... The cavalry came in to help the liberators: But that ruck proved tougher than expected: From here there were a few more losses and no real victor. Result The rules pack we were playing under granted a score of 15 to the winner for a major victory and 5 to the loser. Anything else was a 10 - 10 split. You then counted up the difference in points killed to transfer points from the player who had died the most to the player that did the most deading. So in this game, by the scenario, it was a case of points difference deciding the minor victor. This game was close and I was only maybe 100 points worse off than Mattias. But worse off nonetheless. So it was a minor loss BUT because of the tournament pack tiers I actually lost 0 points. So it remained a 10-10 split. Technically a draw. The best kind! Lessons I've listed a bunch as I typed but most from previous games could be repeated. I think with this game so close what sticks out most is: Deployment (mainly the decimators) Target selection Positioning Combat activation order Choosing the best troops for any given task (IE the decimators having a real bad game mostly thanks to the things I tried to get them to do) Fully cleaning up units when there are kill points at stake - If I had taken out the doom diver catapult and crew together I'd maybe have a minor victory by the handbook but the tournament pack is what counts so this isn't a big lesson in this instance Initiative implications - several times this tourney I was ecstatic to get the early double turn but then wasn't in a position to fully capitalise on it. I enjoyed this game immensely and think I played much better than in the first 2 even against a new army. But hey, I was flowing down the tables, finding my own natural level so it isn't like I was actually improving I was, however, learning! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 1 hour ago, Turragor said: My opponent was a sport and said he'd just taken the recommended (box content) number. He wasn't sure if you could just have units of only netters bar champions, standards and musicians giving opponents like a -16 to hit or something. -1 if within 2" of a netter. And pretty sure you dont get -2 if you are within 2" of two netters. ? Ok going to continue reading. I really like your battle reports. ☺ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted October 21, 2016 Author Share Posted October 21, 2016 15 hours ago, Andreas said: -1 if within 2" of a netter. And pretty sure you dont get -2 if you are within 2" of two netters. ? Ok going to continue reading. I really like your battle reports. ☺ Oh that makes sense! I can't recall exactly now but I think he may have just played the - 1. And it was just me who didn't understand. Should edit report. Glad you like them they aren't super tactical or from an experienced player but I hope the fun element of aos comes through! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted November 3, 2016 Author Share Posted November 3, 2016 Battle 4 Battle 4 was the first of the classic matchups I was to get in the last 2 battles! Stormcast versus Chaos! Specifically Archaon with Varanguard and a Gaunt Summoner backed up with some Nurgle marked support. Scenario The scenario was Gift from the Heavens, a scenario that I quite liked the idea of on paper. It promotes some forethought in deployment. Unfortunately for me, at this point in my AoS career I'm still working on forethought in deployment. Opponent's List Again, I could well get elements here wrong as I am not very good with Chaos lists just yet. Archaon Harbinger of Decay Gaunt Summoner of Tzeentch 10 Chaos Marauders marked by Nurgle 10 Chaos Marauders marked by Nurgle 10 Chaos Marauders marked by Nurgle 5 Chaos Knights marked by Nurgle 5 Putrid Blightkings 3 Varanguard Overlords of Chaos Battalion So while I didn't understand much of my opponents list to begin with, as he explained the things he could do it became a bit clear: Archaon command ability with Morbid Vigour from the Harbinger. With Archaon choosing Nurgle for himself and the Varanguard meant that almost everyone would be getting mortal wound saves bar the Gaunt Summoner. Gaunt Summoner for the battalion specific ability to decide the turn order by single dice roll (that my opponent would know, not I) and not a roll off that both of us knew. An interesting ability. Artefacts and Traits We rolled for artefacts and traits all tournament. In this battle I got Tenacious and Phoenix Stone. Now, sadly, I FORGOT Phoenix Stone the whole battle. I need tokens. If I remembered all my rules and all the extra bits of information I am sure I'd have played better as I'd have more options available. At the same time, my opponents also forgot their fair share so in principle, everything balances out. Deployment I got to deploy first but given he could make a large formation drop I would also would not be able to decide who goes first. His army had a low drop number and he could combine this with the turn order roll trick to know that he was getting the early double turn, or at the very least know I definitely was not getting a double turn. This looks great on paper and I was worried but as it turned out, it's kind of like poker. You can tell by how your opponent plays what the result was (unless they're bluffing) and react accordingly. In this game it didn't really have that much of an impact as you'll see. Given the scenario I felt like I had to deploy quite balanced in all respects so I did so. I kept the Paladins more centred and the judicators and liberators near potential objectives (the liberators were just for the objectives, the judicators had range anyway). My opponent deployed centrally but left my right a bit sparse with Archaon near there. Perhaps I could bait Archaon out towards the LCoD and concussors? The battle So my opponent let me go first. After a think about maybe hesitating until I had a firm idea of where the objectives would land and a rough calculation about how my opponent was likely to use his big centerpiece (Archaon) I opted to move aggressively on the right, conservatively on the centre and left. I tried to keep everything out of charge range of Archaon save the right (and only a long shot). I figured if Archaon went to my right against the LCoD, concussors, Lord Relictor and Judicator units he had a good chance of dying before the support reached him. Unless of course he was some sort of monster - but I had heard (these boards in fact!) that Archaon was not often monstrous in melee. My shooting was largely a peppering on Archaon with a peppering on the rest of his army with a tasty roll of 5 from rain of stars (not many managed to succeed though). I felt like, aside from Archaon, I wanted to focus the varanguard and his gaunt summoner with my ranged. I knew that once the summoner was gone archaon needed to be closer to the varanguard making it harder to split these two strong units. I also didn't like the idea of the gaunt summoner's blade against my low model count and relatively low bravery (yeah what's up with that with stormcast?!) army, even if it was unlikely the summoner would be in combat. That was largely round 1 for me. My opponent rolled for the initiative for next turn in secret and upon seeing the result put on his best poker face. He made a few sensible moves in the centre and then after a frenzy of measuring potential charges to my LCoD he moved Archaon on top of the hill ready to take the bait I'd laid out. At this point I began to wonder if my Judicator unit to the right was placed a bit recklessly... and had he got the next turn? What was his overall tactic here? If Archaon can't kill the LCoD (his rerolls help and Archaon's rend isn't super deadly) I'll be able to focus a lot on the big guy next turn... My opponent succeeded with the charge, the only charge, and Archaon landed between my judicators and LCoD. He split his attacks, the beast on the judicators (except the heads) and the blade and beast heads on my LCoD. What happened next was probably the turning point of the battle - so soon! - in that it indicated that Archaon was going to have a good game and that a bait tactic only works when there's a hook with the bait... 3 wounds from Archaon's blade on the LCoD, 2 6s from the wound roll... My opponent laughed, quite hysterically. Apparently it was one of his tournament goals. Bye bye small lizard brother (again!) The judicators were smashed quite considerably by the tail. At this point my opponent revealed I had the next round. He'd made a huge gamble but it had kind of paid off: It wasn't over yet though, I rolled for my meteor in my hero phase and it landed on my completely unchallenged left flank right under the nose of my decimators. The main action was in the centre and Archaon was out of the action that far to the right and I could bog him down for a turn or two. I moved some protectors into charge range. My relictor moved back to avoid being within range of some of Archaon's longer range attacks. My concussors decided that they'd sweep past Archaon and move in on the gaunt summoner and marauders behind the hill. If the objective landed on this side of my opponent's army, on my right, I'd have a huge advantage. If it landed in the middle I'd be able to rush the concussors round the back while the LCoSD and decimators pushed in I moved my centre forward to engage the main thrust of the opponent's force. The decimators conga lined so they should have scored the objective. Again, the only thing that could go wrong for my plan here was if Archaon continued to have a good game and if my opponent's objective landed on my left where I couldn't really do much. My shooting was quite ineffective on Achon but I heavily damaged the marauders with my concussors. I made most of my charges that I needed to make. In the combat phase my protectors put a lot of pressure on Archaon but he saved quite a few including a 6 from the glaives. The end result being 8 wounds taken. In response, thankfully, he only managed to kill 3 paladins. My Stardrake ate 2 knights on horsies and slapped 1 more away. I'd positioned so as not to draw in the rest of his units in the centre this turn. My Concussors had a hairy moment under against the warptongue blade thingy from the summoner. Luckily my opponent did not roll over their bravery so I only took a wound total. The concussors response destroyed the summoner and most of the marauders. Unfortunately though, somehow in my movement phase I managed to confuse my intentions with the liberators and decimators) these kinds of errors are why I lost games tbh!) and managed to be outside the scoring range for the objective. 2 points thrown away. A crucial 2 points it would turn out. The turn had worked out quite nicely except for my complete objective foolishness (not my first and not my last mistake of the tournament). Archaon was at around 50%, my LCoSD was untouched, the opponent had lost his left flank and the main threat in the centre had been weakened... but there were threats on the table still, arguably the biggest, and I didn't know where my opponents blasted meteor was going to land. That and the lingering pain from the phenomenal first turn of Archaon. It was anyone's game still tbh. My opponent rolled for his meteor and I held my breath... his right, my left. A 33% chance of a bad result and I landed right in the 33! Oh well, there was hope yet so long as I could get through to my opponent's meteor before game end. My opponent moved the centre in to pin down my LCoSD. 1 marauder unit controlled his objective. Quite a few charges were made from 3 inches... A wraparound was prepared. My opponent I think was not aware of, or didn't care about, the LCoSD's MW reflect. Perhaps he thought the mortal wound save would help (and it surely did). The melee began... 2 wounds left! A bunch of reflected damage and the Stardrake's own attacks had actually thinned the enemy units. During this melee Archaon was also activated (after my LCoSD, I couldn't use the protectors before the LCoSD - I may have left models standing to take off those extra 2 wounds) and he killed the protectors and most of the judicators on my right flank. Things could have been worse and I right now the only thing that could really mess with things was my opponent winning the initiative roll which he of course did! The silver lining here was that nearly everything was in combat. He hadn't that much movement open to him. Archaon tried to arcane bolt the last Judicator but that didn't pan out. Another bonus for me! He'd be stuck there that round killing a single Judicator and I'd be able to charge him with my decimators (who couldn't be attacked by anything in the melee with the LCoSD. The Decimator positioning - although I miscalculated with objective range - had paid off a little. Holding them back meant I had options whilst Archaon's desire to split attacks between units and pile in over units he was engaged with to be in the biggest melee had led to him being stuck up against a single battleline model. However... my LCoSD was on only 2 wounds. So I was about to lose a lot of points that may prove crucial. My decimators were also nearest my objective and moving them to kill Archaon would mean I didn't score 3 that round and risked never scoring fullstop whilst my opponent continued to control his... So the round panned out as expected, the big loss of the LCoSD (it took all my opponents units here bar the marauders) and Archaon freeing himself for the round after. A bonus for me was that after I removed my LCoSD here my opponent had to allocate wounds from unsaved mw reflections losing 1 varanguard and further injuring the Harbinger. In my turn I had an (pretty obvious to be honest) epiphany I could retreat the remainder of my Liberators (unscathed by marauder attacks) to my objective for control and charge Archaon with the decimators! It was a gamble, I needed the roll but I made it! My concussors began sweeping back to Archaon and the ruck in the middle - my 2nd biggest mistake this match, I should have moved towards the marauders holding my opponents objective immediately, I'd have made it in round 4 or 5 and may have in fact won the game. As it was I hadn't the faith in the Decimators. My lack of faith was unfounded though, Archaon was hurt by the decimators - 4 wounds left - and in return killed only 1. Luckily he'd been out of range of the Harbingers mw save so the Starsoul maces did their work. I won the initiative next and my concussors, now blocked by the remains of the units in the middle, charged in. In the combat phase, my decimators killed Archaon (Whoop!) and my concussors made their presence known killing the Harbinger and 2 blight kings. In my opponents turn he chose to charge in his Varanguard to slow the concussors and decimators up and made a roadblock between my troops and his objective. It was the safe move and given I'd failed to score in the first scoring round, all my opponent had to do was keep his marauders on the meteor. At this point the last round was a formality. I hadn't the mobility to get to and remove his meteor holding unit. I did manage to kill the blight king and varanguard though, securing a narrow lead for myself in units killed. Result The rules pack we were playing under granted a score of 15 to the winner for a major victory and 5 to the loser. Anything else was a 10 - 10 split. You then counted up the difference in points killed to transfer points from the player who had died the most to the player that had did the most deading. So it was 15-5 against me for the scenario and that was adjusted by the difference in points removed. 14-6 loss Lessons I was starting to make some better decisions here but small errors, miscalculations, rushing and all that jazz were still plaguing me. Having said that in this game I could argue that my awareness of what my army could and couldn't do was firm and guided. It was a really bad Archaon first turn then objective awarness that really saw me lose! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anren Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Läst allt nu. Coolt med turnering! Resultatet gör inte så mycket tycker jag. Du kämpade på din nivå och det var så taktiskt som du kunde. Grymt kul och läsa! Kul med både text och bilder. Vad fick du för kommentarer när du fota så mycket? Hur kom du ihåg allt? Skrev du ner? Kör själv Chaos så skulle varit kul och höra hur det var att möte han. GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted November 6, 2016 Author Share Posted November 6, 2016 23 minutes ago, Anren said: Läst allt nu. Coolt med turnering! Resultatet gör inte så mycket tycker jag. Du kämpade på din nivå och det var så taktiskt som du kunde. Grymt kul och läsa! Kul med både text och bilder. Vad fick du för kommentarer när du fota så mycket? Hur kom du ihåg allt? Skrev du ner? Kör själv Chaos så skulle varit kul och höra hur det var att möte han. GG Jag håller med att resultatet är inte så viktigt. Var det kul? Ja! Och var det roligt att kämpa? Ja! Efter det är bara nice att jag har lärt mig något och haft det kul! När jag tog bilder, några av mina motståndare tänkte 'jo nu måste jag ta bilder också'. Det kan va svårt att kom ihåg att ta bilder - och att skriva ner saker! Jag skrev ner mest till den 1e battle och sen mindre och mindre. Men, jag kom ihåg saker ganska lätt (när de är roliga saker). Dem få linjer jag skrev ner tillsammans med alla bilder jag tog räcker för mig att reconstruct allt som hänt i varje match. Den sista match rapport kommer i framtiden och det var också Chaos, Archaon igen med 3 varanguard men med bloodbound i stället av Nurgle. Chaos är en klassiskt matchup för mig och jag trodde det var jätte kul att spela emot 2 chaos opponents. Mycket mer flavour än Stormcast tex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solaris Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 Nice read, thanks for sharing! Looking forward to your report from the last game, Archon with Varanguard and Bloodbound sounds like the guy I faced in my first game. Never played against Archon before, was an interesting experience. I completely get what you say about learning slowly, I remember some events I went to when I was younger in earlier editions. In theory, I knew exactly what to do. In practice, my brain kept farting the whole tournament, and I never got anything right. Luckily, that seems to have passed now though, as I'm sure it will for you with some more games under your belt Great event, looking forward to the next one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted November 7, 2016 Author Share Posted November 7, 2016 What I found most fascinating about the 2 Archaons I faced was that their eye of sheehoohaaho (or w/e it is called) ability that lets you roll a dice and that result from your opponent can be rerolled is super cool in theory... BUT I have never seen an ability have so much bad luck. Yeah opponents can have unlucky streaks or dice can be unlucky but the dice were mixed in terms of luck, the 2 opponents had good and bad rolls but the ability itself was just a ****** roll nearly every time. Nearly impossible odds! I'm not exaggerating, 10 rounds against Archaon and it was 9 x 1 or 2 and 1 x 6 iirc, and when it was a 6 he, and I, forgot about it the whole round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 15, 2017 Author Share Posted January 15, 2017 So after a long delay I remembered I hadn't finished this (oh and my photos from the last report disappeared!). So now I'm bringing this report to a belated close. Battle 5 Battle 5 was the second and perhaps enen more classic matchup. Stormcast versus Chaos! Specifically Archaon with Varanguard and a bunch o' bloodbound. Scenario The scenario was Three Places of Power a scenario that I had been dreading given I had only 3 heroes and 2 I used aggressively (ie they die). I decided I would be better focusing heroes on 2 places of power rather than spreading my heroes out. Opponent's List Again, I could well get elements here wrong as I am not very good with Chaos lists. Archaon Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut Bloodsecrator 3 Varanguard 20 Bloodreavers 5 Blood Warriors 5 Chaos Knights 5 Chaos Knights 1 Chaos Spawn Artefacts and Traits We rolled for artefacts and traits all tournament. In this battle I got Tenacious and Quicksilver Potion. True to form, I forgot the potion Deployment I got to deploy first again and neither of us had any formations and an equal number of warscrolls so I finished deploying first. Game 5 and I feel like my deployment was, finally, something I can understand when I look back on the pictures I took. Nearly all units on the front line, caval-drakes together with the big lizard across from the enemies toughest units. Small lizard bro ready to challenge the middle. Relictor positioned to move to heal whichever big lizard needed it or take the right objective. Decimators across from the biggest chaff unit. Protectors across from where I suspected Archaon might fall (center) or at least able to reach him within a few rounds unless he ignored all the places of power. Judicators centered and able to flexibly move right or left to reach any target. I think that's okay, given what I was opting for - take only 2 places of power. The battle So time has ravaged my brain and this report will be the toughest yet. Fitting for the final write-up. For some reason - I think my logic was that his army was melee and would need to come to me - I let him take the first turn. In this scenario I learned quickly it's a great idea to go first and plant heroes on the places of power immediately. He moved everyone forward. Archaon sat on the middle place of power and his lord of khorne on juggernaut couldn just reach the right one. His bloodsecrator seemed to be a bit undecided about what he wanted to do. I think his banner got stuck in the ground turn 2 and he couldn't get it out. In my first turn I surged forward. My Stardrake ready to challenge for the objective, my concussors went towards his varanguard to try to keep them off the Stardrake. My relictor moved behind to back these units up. The centre also moved in, aiming all bows at archaon and moving my LCoD towards the place of power. Liberators moved up to to try to engage the 2nd knight unit or Archaon, pinning them from some interesting combats I thought I'd setup. Shooting was all on Archaon with a few breath attacks on the Varanguard (wounding one) and made only a small impact. Charges were lacklustre. Only the lizard brothers made it into combat. I chose to edge the LCoSD into the lord of khorne and knight unit 1. The LCoD I decided was best swinging right with his large charge roll and into the knights. I didn't fancy he'd kill Archaon without support. The stardrake ate a knight, one of the command - I think the champion was in range - was the tasty morsel (I love eating specific models). The rest of his attacks were not too impressive. Small lizard bro smashed 3 knights aside himself. Go Mario Thunderfist and Luigi Shieldhammerface! I won the initiative for round 2. My opponent had piled in his knights clumsily (I thought) on the right and the hill made attacking the stardrake a bit awkward. So I made my concussors move to the right a feint, they slipped behind the stardrake and eyed up the lord of khorne and possibly Archaon... The Lord Relictor shadowed them from behind, figuring when Archaon was down some brave hero would need to hold the middle place of power. My liberators walled off the judicators and decimators from an Archaon charge (wellll I mean he flies and he's not exactly going to leave a place of power is he? Still they had to move to let the protectors squeeze through ready to charge Archaon if they could reach. I kept my decimators positioned in the funnel of the terrain in case they didn't make their charge. I could move closer and guarantee a charge but be in a worse spot if I failed it or hold and risk a long charge but wouldn't be caught in the middle if I failed it. The bloodreavers, spawn and warriors could come to me. A compressed front worked better unless they wasted time going round behind archaon (made it more likely my heroes would live). This was a pretty neat move by me, leaving the left flank with little on it versus my opponents classic "spread everywhere" deployment meant he had a ton of units out of action for an age. In my shooting phase I cleared the knights in the centre and chipped more wounds of Archaon. With the 1st knight unit out of the way the centre was clear for 3 possible charges into the big chaos demi-god. My Stardrake continued burping lightning on the varanguard and assorted unitsall over the map. One Varanguard ded. My LCoD and Protectors made it, my concussors had a lower roll but opted for the equally tender lord of khorne. Remember all this talk from not 2 minutes ago? "I kept my decimators positioned in the funnel of the terrain in case they didn't make their charge. I could move closer and guarantee a charge but be in a worse spot if I failed it or hold and risk a long charge but wouldn't be caught in the middle if I failed it. The bloodreavers, spawn and warriors could come to me. A compressed front worked better unless they wasted time going round behind archaon" Forget alllll about that. I made my charges for the decimators and liberators and I think spent only 5 seconds thinking about whether to charge or not (I did). Oh well! In the combat phase I ate more knights. I did more wounds to the knights. The stardrake was eating more than he was killing traditionally (and these were 4 wound models iirc so 5 or more on the dice). Archaon responded by killing my LCoD - I think this was a clearly a mistake on my part. Still wondering the best course of action here. Perhaps ignoring Archaon? The Concussors battered the Lord of Khorne TO DEATH. That is all. The decimators (only time it happened in the tourney) were in against chaff and the chaff duly died. Buffed by the bloodsecrator or not, the chaff could do nothing in return (even against the liberators). Bloodleakers I dub them. The unofficial score so far: The official score (points) saw me far behind as the lord of khorne had only just died. But I suspected I could kill Archaon and take turn 3 and onwards points with my relictor and Stardrake, narrowly taking a lead. I was on track for a tabling after all! And here is where my whole downfall comes in: I believed that it was 1 pt turn 1, 2 pts turn 2, 3 pts turn 3 etc. Not one point plus one for each turn the hero has been there already. Say it after me folks, "I should have fully read the battleplan". In my opponents turn he tried to continue using Archaon as a huge magic missile firing paperweight sitting on the precious place of power. Well there were some protectors to kill, turn order depending. Should I go first with the- hold the phone! Finally the Varanguard get into combat! Phew, what took them so long? I am not even sure now. FINE the Stardrake can go first. What's that you say? How about eating one knight and one varanguard? OKAY! hahahahaha (roll of 6 on the Varanguard maincourse had me giggling). The SD bashed the last knight down too. Well, Archaon is bound to kill all the protectors now so... Whaaaa? All those dice too. Next, nearly all bloodleakers gone. No losses (yet). Bloodsecrator no doubt bursting a vessel over ineffective banner planting. My opponent had the initiative now and chose to stand there with Archaon and kill protectors. The bloodreavers managed to kill a decimator. The spawn and the rest of the bloodleakers died. My turn again! Hmmm. 9 wounds on the LCoSD? Check Total misunderstanding about the scoring rules? Check Overconfidence at this stage? Check Unnecessary mistake? You know it! /Wink So what we have here is a Stardrake that charged an Archaon, abandoning a guaranteed chunk of points at HIS place of power under the belief that I would attack with concussors ranged and Judicators ranged, weaken Archaon, and kill him thus taking control of his objective and earning 4 more points! Instead I didn't kill him, didn't score points and (lucky son of a ****** that I am) only took 3 more wounds. To top it off the concussors didn't even kill Archaon in their activation. Sheesh. And that was it, I didn't score that turn. I would have won. But noooooo. Oh well! Opponent's turn next, and down goes the LCoSD (ofc!) granting basically free points to my opponent. My concussors melancholicly killed Archaon after. In a huff, the rest of my stormcast killed every living chaos guy left... to no avail. The brave relictor straining on top of the former stardrakes place of power could only manage 1 extra point. Result The rules pack we were playing under granted a score of 15 to the winner for a major victory and 5 to the loser. Anything else was a 10 - 10 split. You then counted up the difference in points killed to transfer points from the player who had died the most to the player that had did the most deading. So it was 15-5 against me for the scenario and that was adjusted by the difference in points removed. Which was a hefty 2000 loss for my opponent, 1020 for me. 12-8 loss Lessons All lessons (nearly all) in this battle were about the scenario. I totally misunderstood it. Cost me the game. Having said that I threw away the Stardrake in a points sense as well as an objective sense. Other than the Stardrake I had lost 1 unit of protectors, 1 LCoD and then just a smattering from other units. A clean and competent loss? Nah, a loss is a loss! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 15, 2017 Author Share Posted January 15, 2017 My notes for the final battle amuse me. 4 lines (clearly I was mentally exhausted!) in no particular temporal order: Forgot my potion I tabled him! I ATE 6 KNIGHTS AND A VARANGUARD LOST All in all this was a great first tournament and, though I'm moving onto painting Beastclaw now (at least that's the plan) writing this final installment (and a stormcast victory @ 1000pts earlier today) makes me want to get more golden bros - specifically golden bros on big lizards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickenbits Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Amazing read! Well, regarding your last comments, looks like there are some new shiny golden bros for you to collect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 24, 2017 Author Share Posted January 24, 2017 6 hours ago, Chickenbits said: Amazing read! Well, regarding your last comments, looks like there are some new shiny golden bros for you to collect Yes! I think the most compelling thing is that I want a rich, deep army to choose from. So that I can feel I've got everything covered gaming options wise. I'll still be able to work on side projects and will always have a lot of options for tournaments without any painting panic. And the quickest way to reach that is to add to my SCE list! Plus they're cool. I guess I've always been a space marine 'elite and noble few' kind of player at heart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solaris Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 As you mention somewhere in the middle, the right course of action is ignoring Archaon. Letting him go first in this scenario was a big mistake, but you could have salvaged it by just overwhelming the other two objectives asap (he has 700 points stuck in the middle, which means you fight with 2000 against 1300 points at the flanks - should be a slaughter). Another thing you can do is place your Judicators in a circle around Archaon, 3-4" away. He doesn't have a long enough move to fly over you and land more than 3" away on the other side due to his huge base, so if he wants to assist the rest of his army he has to waste one or two turns fighting through your Judicators (and if against all odds they survive a turn, retreat them and block him again, so he has to charge you another time to get through). The Judicators can still do their job from the middle with their range. You can also put a hero a little bit further away behind the Judicators to the side, so that if Archaon tries to break free you can run in and take the objective behind him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratatatata Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 1 hour ago, Solaris said: As you mention somewhere in the middle, the right course of action is ignoring Archaon. Letting him go first in this scenario was a big mistake, but you could have salvaged it by just overwhelming the other two objectives asap (he has 700 points stuck in the middle, which means you fight with 2000 against 1300 points at the flanks - should be a slaughter). Another thing you can do is place your Judicators in a circle around Archaon, 3-4" away. He doesn't have a long enough move to fly over you and land more than 3" away on the other side due to his huge base, so if he wants to assist the rest of his army he has to waste one or two turns fighting through your Judicators (and if against all odds they survive a turn, retreat them and block him again, so he has to charge you another time to get through). The Judicators can still do their job from the middle with their range. You can also put a hero a little bit further away behind the Judicators to the side, so that if Archaon tries to break free you can run in and take the objective behind him. Smart! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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