NicoLab

Have you considered running a larger bock of Marauders? I have been experimenting with a block of 40.  It would cut a chunk out of your summoning pool.  But for 200 you end up with a unit that can be a pain to remove.  (I have been know to give them mystic Shield, and Ocular visions from the  Chaos Sorcerer Lord, and sit them in a nice bit of cover and tarpit quite scary units, or make last min runs up the table ). 

The problem is that the pool was crafted for particular combos.

I don't doubt that 40 rending Maras are strong!

Massive Kudos to GW for the changes to the Firestorm abilities - this is good news for Death and Destruction in particular. They adopted the solution that @Thomas Lyons and I reached. 

So two fun practice games today vs Dan Mitchell and Shaun.

Got me warmed up - still rather tired.

I lost both games. I tried out the Exalted Greater Daemon of Tzeentch vs Skaven - he sucked. Then I went up against my nemesis - the Skyfires. I played far too aggressively and got zapped off. My Pink Horrors did well.

Edited October 6, 2017 by Nico

Right  - here we go - had a great time and event amazing overall and well organised!

Practice games

For my practice games I was fortunate to bump into Dan Mitchell of the Ashes of the Imperium podcast with his Pestilens army. After realising that my Nurgle Exalted Greater Daemon was essentially immune to Dan's catapults, my brain slowly realised that for a meaningful contest I should probably summon the Chicken Bucket (EGD of Tzeentch) instead, which I hadn't used on the table before.

The EGD has 3 valuable features – a 3+ save and 20 wounds, a bigger command ability bubble and Turbo Gateway – on a 2+, which could readily do 8 mortal wounds rather than 6. The second feature didn't apply to me. He is however, a lot of points 580 – if I take him, then I can only summon on the Balewind for 100 and 3 Plague Toads for the final 100 (780).

Summoning the Plague Toads is a real pain as it's an 11 cast and the 2+ cast anything ability of the Scrubs doesn't help (since it would just cast the summon the single Toad version); and you cannot try to reroll the failed cast either – as if you roll a 5, then you've cast the summon a single Toad version. The goal of the Toads is to suck up wounds from the Treacherous Bonds spell with their 4++ ward save.

Against Dan I lobbed in the Chicken and stuck a bunch of buffs on him – Mystic Shield (possibly I failed the cast), Daemonic Power and Shield of Fate. The Chicken Bucket zapped 5 wounds off a Plague Furnace, but it was hardly the pyrotechnics I was used to with DoT.

He went into the Furnace and 40 Monks.

Meanwhile the Gaunt Summoner annihilated the other unit of Monks.

After that Dan basically ground me down. The chicken melted surprisingly fast to mortal wounds and sheer volume of attacks. I never got the Toads on. Dan romped through my other units and claimed a major. A sobering experience. Having played with an army that lobbed blocks of buffed Clanrats and Stormvermin at people, I was experienced in how nothing beats the killing power of a fully buffed block (30 Stormvermin fully buffed was obscene at -2 rend – possibly only Bloodletters and old school Necropolis Knights could compete with this).

However, I knew that the Chicken Bucket was a marginal option – probably only if I needed a tougher lynchpin to boss the magic phase, for example in a DoT-off or against Sylvaneth – oh look I've learned regrowth on my 20 wound model….

The second game was more ominous. It was against a well-commanded DoT list. He had a Chicken, 20Tzaangor, 6 Skyfires and the usual supporting cast – but no Scrubs and no battalion. For whatever reason he put the Skyfires on the 12" line (maybe he thought I would give him turn one) with the Chicken and Tzaangornearby. I somehow failed to have the DD to cast summon LoC, which was pretty fatal – I probably should have cast it using the Gaunt Summoner, who was +3 to cast with best 2 out of 3 dice, but I wanted to get Arcane Transformation off too.

However, the effective part of the plan was summoning on the 10 Pinks and getting them into combat with theSkyfires, who wrecked them. Due to a discussion about when split occurs, I was unable to pin the Chicken and the Tzaangor too. I lobbed Infernal Flames at the Tzaangor and dented the unit nicely. The game threw up an interesting issue about the split FAQ, what the meaning of the words "If a rule" wipes out the unit all at once. I thought that this was talking about weird rules like going through a Realmgate and things going wrong, but my opponent thought "a rule" could include dying to regular melee attacks. It does make a fair difference as to when the Horrors arrive. I'm minded to play it my way – end of the phase - for the time being, but it could be cleared up.

Nevertheless, the Skyfires were locked down for a turn, just like in my game vs Joe. However, while I had deliberately lobbed the Curseling forward in order to unbind Gateway and fire it back in my opponent's face, for some reason I had also been really aggressive with Chariots and other wizards who should have stayed back.

My opponent proceeded to zap and then batter my forces. The Skyfires stayed occupied for a time, but eventually came out to wreck me. I wasn't able to get either the Toads or the LoC onto the table for far too long and it was a crushing defeat in the end.

Game 1 – Eilir's Khorne

It was a leisurely start time for the Finals which was much appreciated given my lack of sleep due to my 7-month old son. Khorne wasn't a great match up for DoT, but thankfully my opponent (who was a lovely chap) didn't have the Brazen Rune. His army looked sweet too!

The Battleplan was Duality of Death vs Skarbrandanother Billy, 30 Letters and the usual Bloodboundstuff including 10 Wrathbros.

Battleround 1

I chose the correct strategy in terms of summoning. I summoned the LoC, who knew Treason of Tzeentch – he got fully buffed up. I began the magical onslaught, by nuking the letters with Treason and then Infernal Flames. Gateway and spells from the Herald slammed into Skarbrand, but only made him angrier.

 

The Chicken saw the Bloodsecrator in front of him and charged in – killing him exactly with the sword (which was a bit lucky on my part). The Blood Warriors did little in return due to Shield of Fate and Mystic Shield. Meanwhile the Horrors failed their charge and held a line in front of the rest of the army.

The Ogroid got onto the left objective, while the Curseling took the right.

My opponent moved up and wrecked the Pinks. Skarbrand was in whipping range and made a long charge into the LoC. The LoC got obliterated – at least 16 wounds from Carnage.

The Pinks also died, but this meant the Blues got into the way of Skarbrand and co.  The Blood Tithe was overflowing at this point – 5 points already. The Bloodthirster on my right tried to clobber the Curseling, but without success.

Battleround 2

I won the initiative, but my opponent used Blood Tithe to decimate the Blues with Skarbrand. 1 Blue defiantly survived. The Brims replaced them. I had a chariot exactly 3" away from Skarbrand. I zapped at Skarbrand until he had 1 wound left. Would the little Blue Horror that could deal the fatal blow?

The other chariot failed a 3" charge leaving my Ogroid unprotected other than by his Treacherous Bond to 10 Marauders. Painful.

The Blue failed to do the business, but thankfully the Chariot completed the job.

My opponent surged in and really started wrecking my chaff. The Ogroid saved a lot and bounced wounds onto the Maras. The Billy killed the Curseling in the hero phase and started scoring. He then shredded the Chaos Warriors too.

Battleround 3

I think I won the initiative again. I kept sniping at the right Billy with the Gaunt Summoner and the Scrubs, but did little. It was very much delay and rack up the points now.

As part of that delay the Chariot tried to charge again and failed a 3" charge again….

Meanwhile the forces of Khorne shredded my middle and eventually the Ogroid failed Treacherous Bond. He clung on with a few wounds.

Battleround 4

I was fortunate to win the initiative again. The Ogroid managed to retreat out of combat while staying within 3" of the objective (which I believe is legal), you cannot retreat onto the objective to grab control, but seemingly can move as you like afterwards provided you end within 3". 

I then got the Chariot into the Slaughterpriest and Mr Whippy. As this meant they couldn't score next turn, this made my lead insurmountable.

An exciting and close game though!

In retrospect, I should have used spells to nuke the Bloodsecrator, rather than melee and hidden the LoC and the Herald inside a Horror Bunker to guarantee two full turns of zappy zap, followed by fly and goodbye onto the objective. I underestimated how farSkarbrand would reach. Nevertheless, it was a Major win and 1,100 kill points to 1,300. A decent start. I was pumped because I was a few metres away from Table 1 and heard the howl of anguish from Ben Savva's opponent - he had thrown it away to Skryre's benefit!

One of the Warhammer TV team said some very kind things about my army painting and invited me to be on the Livestream. However, it didn't pan out in the end. Thanks a great deal for the kind comments on the painting.

 

Edited October 11, 2017 by Nico

Game 2

Interestingly the draw was based only on tournament points, not kill points (so much for the upper mid-level submarine). I ended up in a Tzeentch off for Game 2. As a result of the excessive magical forces surrounding the game, almost all records have been lost in a time slip. Only the Major Defeat for me escaped the vortex.

Game 3 – Craig Namvar and the Vanguard Wing

My reward for losing game 2 to DoT was surely softer opposition in game 3 – not so as I faced off against Jack Armstrong's list, which had recently won Facehammer – the Stardrake, 30 teleporting Libs and some more pewpew.

The Battleplan was Battle for the Pass – longwise.

Deployment

The extra space behind meant that Craig could hide his Castellant with impunity and he did the same with the Liberators themselves, so no Infernal Flames for me.

Happily, I had a sweet building to bunker in and could pop the Chaos Spawn in the doorway to block it.

I knew I would be going down the usual LoC, Horrors, Split, Plague Toads route for this game. The question was whether to go first or second. If I went first, then I could deploy the Horrors as an additional shield around my bunker. However, Craig might get a double turn and be able to redeploy his stuff to smash through the hole he made in my bunker in his first turn (as he can set up out of combat without it counting as a retreat).

Craig's final drop was putting his Stardrake on the borderline, but right by his side of the table, next to the Judicators. This was probably to make it easier for him to fly vaguely near the bunker for Staunch Defendering. However, it left the Stardrake within 36" of my batch of Wizards. This tipped the balance for me and I opted to go first.

Battleround 1

My DD were poor – only one six from memory. However, that didn't stop me from having a brutal hero phase. I summoned on the Chicken and fired off Gateway into the Stardrake, then Inferno. Inferno did really well – netting 7 mortal wounds for a change. The Herald pumped out the final mortal wounds to kill it.

 

Meanwhile the Ogroid summoned 10 Pinks partly in front of my bunker and partly to threaten the 5 Judicators on the middle line. This meant he didn't have Treacherous Bond.

I used a 6 and a 4 to make a 10" charge into the Judicators near the Starcorpse with the LoC. He was toting 3 sword attacks and Daemonic Power but proceeded to fluff his rolls completely – doing zero melee damage. I scored 5 points.

In response the Liberators went in. They wrapped around most of my bunker and the Pinks. The Grandhammers concentrated on the Chariot which formed part of the ring. Shooting was painful, especially rerolling 1s to hit with Judicators. The Herald died. However, the Prosecutors lacked line of sight of the Gaunt Summoner and the scoundrel clung on with 1 wound left.

The Combat Phase deleted 10 Maras and a Chariot, together with just some of the Pinks. The Chaos Warriors did well in response, but Craig saved like a god. Split gave me a tonne of models on the nearby side objective. I used a 1 for Battleshock and got 2 Pinks back.

Craig didn't outnumber me on my home objective, so only scored 3 points.

Score 5:3

Battleround 2

I won the initiative.

The Chicken cast Gateway and struck down the Castellant with one zap – the only model guarding Craig's home objective. He failed his other spell, which was painful. I also forgot to cast anything with the Pink Horrors, who should have had Treason to help grind down the Liberators. After the game I realised that I should have summoned another Herald knowing Treason instead of trying pointlessly to get 3 Plague Toads on – I ended the game with 140 left in the summoning pool.

Infernal Flames rolled pretty well and I got Treacherous Bond off from the Ogroid to the Spawn. Various other spells went off. Meanwhile the Chicken ran onto Craig's objective.

My shooting bounced off the Judicators embarrassingly. Combat was meh, with the Ogroid doing poorly/Craig rolling all his saves on 3 damage hits. Battleshock was a 4 or so and the Liberator line was looking much thinned.

I scored a healthy 7 points.

In response, Craig shot off the Gaunt Summoner and my Sorceror Lord on a Horse. He started to grind down the Horrors, but not quickly enough to score. The Liberators were rolling very hot and cleared off the Chaos Warriors, but my Curseling came in and did some damage in return. Craig had removed casualties to suck the Ogroid out of combat. This time Craig had more models on my home objective. Prosecutors moved onto his own home objective and shot plenty of wounds off my Chicken. The Liberators were pretty much down to the Hammer now.

Craig scored 7 too.

Score 12:10.

I won the initiative.

Battleround 3

The Chicken took out the Prosecutors and again seized Craig's home objective. Meanwhile the Ogroid sensed an opportunity – a sweet Fireblast could potentially take out 3 Liberators and also bring on 5-6 Brimstone Horrors directly onto the objective, who could then move as normal.

However, it was not to be, I rolled a 1 for the damage. Nemo, the Ogroid continued to derp, when he could readily have wiped the unit. Craig killed him with his final two Liberators (which was obscene – how did they do 8 damage vs Paradoxical Shield)? Battleshock finally claimed the Liberators or maybe it was the Spawn.

 

The Pinks were dead and the Blues couldn't hit a barn door, but they kept on scoring.

I scored 6.

Craig cleared up my home objective and continued to work on the Blues. He retreat-ran his Prosecutors and rolled a 5! to get his home objective back. Craig scored 7.

Score 18:17

Battleround 4

We were running short on time. I believe Craig won the initiative. He shot and charged the Chicken and got it down to 2 wounds before melee. I had to make a 4+ save for the game, which I did. The Chicken killed them, so Craig didn't score his home.

Craig scored 6.

In response, I scored a final 6; and won the game. 

Final Score 24:23

I think the final score at the time was 25-22 for the record.

A very, very close one. Craig was a cool guy to play against too.

This really underscored the strength of the Vanguard Wing – even with over 500 points shredded turn one, it very nearly beat my bunker.

 

Edited October 12, 2017 by Nico

Saturday night was Bugman's and the quiz! I can recommend the chicken burger.

A team of just Ben Savva and I came 2nd, which was a great result - no doubt assisted by Ben's artwork for next AoS release - the mighty Squig Zeppelin Pirates!

Game 4 - Ian Spink's Bonesplitterz 

Game 4 was pivotal - win here and I had a shot at the top 10.

 

Ian's army had Bonesplitter allegiance – I was worried about the mask (indefinite mortal wounds) as my dice had been poor all weekend. The 30 Arrers were worrying but surely I could smash them with spells turn one as I'd done to the Bloodletters in game 1.

Ian also had a lot of Maniak Boarboyz, which are pretty tasty with a double pile in – I keep looking at them as part of a Gordrakk list. I knew that Big Stabbaz were also a threat and resolved to chaff them up with Horrors.

The Battleplan was Starstrike

Battleround 1

I went first, lobbed out the LoC, and the Herald and formed a bunker 3" away from them. No YOLOChicken this time. The Chicken knew Treason and did minimal damage to the 30 Arrers with it. I summoned the Balewind and lobbed in Infernal Flames, but the dice just sucked. At the end of the turn after Pink shooting and Battleshock there were only 10Arrers dead – a pathetic result.  Ian would still have the oh so ridiculous 3 shots per model. I buffed up the Chicken to a 3+ rerolling 1s and 2s. Gateway went into the Stabbasbut didn't even kill one model.

The Curseling went forward too as did the Marauders who made a solid run roll to form a shield in front of the Pink shield.

Ian began his turn. All his spells went off except for the +1 to hit spell and Mystic Shield, which I unbound and then cast onto the Chicken (Rule of One only applies per turn, so you can stack it in this most unusual circumstance). This was probably the only value I got out of the Curseling all game – he is terrible for his cost – far too many opponents where he does nothing.

Lacking the Rukk, the shooting wasn't too bad. I think it chipped 2 wounds off the Chicken. Ian proceeded to make some truly bonkers charges with the Pigs. One was an 11 with a +2, which threaded his huge unit through a tiny gap in my Marauder line (where one had been shot off) and into my Sorceror Lord – who was I thought comfortably safe.

 

 

See how far those Pigs moved!

The Stabbaz also got a solid charge and one of them threatened the Herald of Tzeentch.

The Pigs rolled like crazy and killed the Sorceror, the Maras and took several wounds off the Curseling on one side. On the other side the Chicken went in and double one'd his one sword attack that hit. The Maras didn't get their +1 to hit buff and generally stank. The Pinks died. The second wave of Pile Ins shredded even more of my bunker and killed the Curseling, the Herald and the Sorceror Lord, who I had thought were comfortable. Split bogged down Ian's Stabbaz.

Battleround 2

The middle comet came down right.

Ian proceeded to win the initiative and continued the pain. The right pigs strung out right to shield the right objective from my Chariots. The Pigs ate through the Marauders and got onto the Chicken in a big way. In perhaps the most absurd turn of events I've seen for a while, they rolled a 5+, which gives them 6s on wound roll causes a mortal wound and then proceeded to roll 10-12 such sixes (with a double pile in), exactly killing the 2+ save rerolling ones and twos Chicken. Utterly absurd. Even with one wound left he would still have been a colossal threat and on a 4+ the Scrubs would have learned Gateway for use later. I was raging at my dice.

Ian scored 2 points.

In response I failed the Bubble spell, then failed Daemonic Power and Treacherous Bond on the Ogroid. The Chariots hit the back end of the Pig Line on the right and the Spawn hit the left end. There was a glimmer of hope as the Chariots rolled 6 attacks with the flail each and chainsawedthe pigs down to 2 models for minimal losses. The Chaos Warriors and Ogroid killed most of the other unit of Pigs. Still – things were looking exceedingly bleak.

Score 0:2

Battleround 3

The comets came down – mine was left and Ian's diagonally right. I did manage to win the initiative, however I failed to free up the Ogroid to attack the remaining ArrerBoyz on the left side. The Gaunt Summoner needs to learn to shoot. However, I did have a small brain wave as I realised I could summon another Herald (instead of the Toads) onto the far right objective 36" away from the Gaunt Summoner. The Herald started zapping the Pigs on the middle right objective too.

One Chariot went right with the Spawn, while the other one went left. The Scrubs zipped across to score left.

The Ogroid and Warriors were left stranded in no man's land.

 

In response Ian basically shredded the Ogroid and the middle Chariot and ran a hero towards the far right objective. He cast Hand of Broken which helped him lob 10 bodies a very long way towards the left objective.

Ian scored 6 points.

Score 

6:8

Battleround 4

Ian rolled a 2 for initiative and I felt I had a shot – only to roll a 1 – now I was absolutely livid with my dice.

Ian now flooded the left objective with 10 Boyz and the remnants of the Arrer Boyz. Remarkably the handful of Big Stabbaz managed to miss the Blues chaffing them up. The Scrubs wielded their quills to little purpose. This time Ian scored a punishing 8 points. His handful of Pigs clung onto the mid objective.

My Herald managed to cast Bolt of Tzeentch and took off the Maniak Weirdnob running at him in one shot.

The Chariot and Spawn cleared the middle objective too. My remaining Warriors went into the Arrerboyz around the Scrubs, but it was too little too late and more Arrers were flooding in.

I only scored 4 points back as I couldn't quite finish off the pigs in the middle.

10:16

Battleround 5

That was game over as I couldn't get the left objective out of the hands of the Arrer Boyz, so Ian would be exactly 1 point ahead. What a game!!!!

Final Score

20:21

My dice were the worst I've ever had in a tournament game. Mostly this was the Chicken dying to absurd mortal wound rolls, but I was also growing increasingly sick of opponents constantly rolling every single casting roll they need, while I struggled to get Daemonic Power off on a 5+ even with rerolls to cast. Every Hand of Broken cast succeeded in particular. #CraigRolls

The initiative roll for Round 4 proved decisive. Had I won I would have cleared the Pigs off a round sooner, scored 8 points; and that would have been that. The dismal rolling for my first turn attempts to nuke the Arrers was also critical.

Thankfully Ian was a delight to play against. If you want drama , if you want dynamism and excitement, then AoS is your game. An underdog army can beat an army armed with the very tools to combat it (Infernal Flames, Treason and very strong rerollable saves). 

We both had hats, although my fez is mainly a dice cup. The Bonesplitterz are a force to be reckoned with thanks to the strength of the double pile in Pigs and the Big Stabbaz – they aren't confined to arrer spam. Ian finished well as I recall and was up near the top.

Mid-table mediocrity beckoned for me, however.

Edited October 13, 2017 by Nico

Game 5 vs Paul Buckler

Apologies to Paul for not doing our game justice. He’s an awesome chap all round! He likes to take unusual lists (something we have in common). He took the Lightning Echelon (Fulminators and Tempestors) which I previously took to Honour and Glory (it didn’t go very well). I do think Tempestors are stealth filth with the auto -1 to hit debuff at range.

I do wonder if Fulminators are a bit redundant now that Staunch Defender makes any Dracoth Knight immune to Arrer Boyz and resistant to almost all shooting other than KO. Also nothing is less reliable than 3+, 3+, -1 when doing 3 Damage on the charge - the Dracoths end up doing more damage in melee.

Paul is very experienced and knew it was a bad match up for him. Scorched Earth suits DoT very well as Pinks can be lobbed in suicidally only for the Blues to burn the objective.

That was the plan here - I stopped myself from YOLOing the chicken (which would have been fatal due to the mortal wound pew pew Dracoths). I slowed down the Dracoths and scored early with Horrors and the Chicken zapped away. From memory it wasn’t spectacular and dice continued to disappoint. Paul’s counter attack was pretty spectacular - using the double charge mechanic to penetrate deep into my central objective. However my early lead proved decisive.

Really good game and I look forward to seeing Paul again. 

Game 6

Somehow my opponent managed to make playing against Kunning Rukk 90 Arrer Boyz with Damned Terrain on Knife to the Heart vaguely enjoyable.

I YOLOed Ted into the Arrers with Damned and all buffs on - I’ve never seen so many 6+ Saves against 3 Damage attacks. This was a daft strategy borne of the fact that I wouldn’t get a Major if I did the usual line of Pinks and Infernal Flames approach. It just wouldn’t get me anywhere near his objective in time. A minor win was not materially better than a loss at this stage.

My Saves were little better and as we know Hand of Broken has an infinite range (true) and never fails to cast (also true). Ted popped - eventually the Gaunt Summoner went down.

Major Loss.

 

Overall it was 3 Major Wins and 3 Major Losses. I actually volunteered to swap to the Bonesplitterz table for game 6 to avoid repeat games vs club mate Ben Savva/Dan Mitchell from the Friday - which I wouldn’t have done if I was concerned about positioning. I came 46th overall - not bad given the #CraigRolls and the YOLO last game.

The structure of the list works soundly and the flexibility of the big summoning pool gives it options vs any opponent. Being a 2 drop is critical vs KO and the Classic Changehost, Gaunt Summoner and Kairos/Skyfires combo. Nevertheless the lights are on late at night in Nico’s Hobby Lab and something horrific is nearly ready to emerge*.

 

 

*I don’t mean the Fyreslayers. #HairSaves #Fluffy #SeaOfOrange

 

Edited December 7, 2017 by Nico