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My List and Quebec City Open Tourny Overview

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Tidings Dracothian Guard

Tidings

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I just did a two-day tournament (the Quebec City Open) and did really well. I tied for Best General, but lost the tie-breaker to the other guy who killed a bit more points than me. I also tied for Best Overall, but also lost that tie-breaker. I DID win Best Diorama for painting though! That was my Hurricanum conversion, which is still a WIP actually lol.

I've been a Wood Elf player for about 14 years, and for the past few months I've been preparing my Wanderer-themed Mixed Order list. Here's what I ran:

Allegiance: Orer
Celestial Battlemage on Celestial Hurricanum (380)
- General
- Trait: Tenacious 
Annoited on Frostheart Phoenix (260)
- Artefact: Phoenix Stone (lol)
Battlemage (100)
- Jade Wizard
Loremaster (100)
Waywatcher Lord (100)
Waywatcher Lord (100)

20 x Glade Guard (240)
10 x Skinks (60)
10 x Skinks (60)
5 x Waywatchers (80)
5 x Waywatchers (80)
3x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Great Bows
10 x Eternal Guard (80)
3 x Tree Kin (100)
2 x Hunting Hounds (40)

Total: 2000/2000
Drops: 15


General thoughts about the list and why I took what I did - Glade Guard are a great ranged hammer unit. By this point, many people are familiar with and scared of them. They are a fantastic battleline in a list with a Hurricanum. The two units of Skinks were chosen because they are dirt cheap and they fill multiple roles very well. They can be used to deny space (from teleports, or just as speedbumps), they can bubblewrap to buy more valuable units a turn, OR they can be used to swarm objectives. Often they can be used for multiple roles in a single turn. I scored TWO major victories almost entirely because of them.

The Loremaster transforms the Frostheart from a tanky nuisance to an absolute monster in combat. The Hurricanum was chosen for  the +1 to hit mostly, but also as a good source of ranged Mortal Wounds, and to give the +1 to cast on the Jade Wizard. That made proccing the bonus armor easier for the Frostheart. Waywatchers were taken because they scale in value better with the +1 to hit than most units. Tons of extra attacks!

Kurnoths weren't my first choice, but I had them painted and they are tanky as hell, so I used them. Having a 35" threat range is vital because at 15 drops, opponents will almost always give me the first turn. This let's me potentially snipe something. Many people are used to them missing a lot, but with the Hurricanum that happens less. I was able to use them as a frontline/objective holder, but in the future I will probably take a Repeater Bolt Thrower. It has more range, is a good secondary target for the Loremaster, and outputs more ranged damage for less points. 

The 10 Eternal Guard are a cheap but fairly reliable wall. A unit of 20x often has a hard time getting in cover on tourny tables, but 10x had no problem. Even unsupported, they require much more than 80 points of the enemy army to uproot if they stand still in cover. Treekin are fantastic value. I took them because there are always spots of the battlefield where there isn't cover, so having a 12 wound 4+ save unit that can reliably occupy that space is good. They also do well in combat. On the charge in range of the Hurricanum, they are doing 9 attacks, 2+/3+ at 2 damage each. That's amazing for 100 points. The two Hunting Hounds were leftover points and they are just large enough to plug gaps in the line, and fast enough to snatch open objectives. Not a threat, but a nice flexible tool to have.

Overall, the general positioning was Hurricanum in the center of the army, almost everything in range, and I advanced steadily on objectives. Skinks played safe and used their numbers to cap objectives. In two games I won because I retreated them from combat when I activated them, getting out of range of the unit that charged them WHILE still staying in range of the objective and controlling it. Against certain enemies (like Stormcast and Sylvaneth) I positioned them in places to deny teleporting or summoning Wildwoods. 

Most of the time I targeted units that were capable of scoring objectives. For example, against Sylvaneth, my first target was the unit of 30x Dryads. Then I generally used my Frostheart and Treekin to tie as many units up in combat as possible, while using Skinks to score objectives since they had the numbers at that point. Overall, my list was pretty reliable about controlling the game. I was able to lock units down and ignore them while wiping out other units entirely, allowing me to play objectives and score major victories. The strong shooting helped take out key units from certain enemy armies, and the durable melee was good enough at holding the line in most cases. The Hurricanum did less mortal wounds than I wanted most games BUT the +1 to hit can not be overstated. I almost always had all my important units in range of it and scored many hits that would have otherwise been misses. 

Later when I have more time I'll do a brief writeup recapping each of my games, and I'll go through my pictures to see if there's some good ones worth sharing!

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Tidings Dracothian Guard

Tidings

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Hey guys, sorry for the horribly late reply! Been crazy busy with little time for hobby stuff. 

Game 1  -  Knife to the Heart  -  Chaos (Nurgle)

This was against a Nurgle list featuring a Glotkin and a strong mix of really durable troops. Most of his army had -1 when hitting them in melee. Since I mostly rely on ranged damage, that meant little to me! In deployment, my opponent focused on placing his army as aggressively forward as possible. His cavalry was spaced out between heavy infantry, and his Glotkin was further back where it could buff his entire army. He had more cav on one flank, and a demon prince on the other. All in all, pretty even threat across the deployment zone. To counter this, I deployed aggressively as well. I left a single unit of skinks my objective, but I also kept the Bow Hunters in cover on it as well. My 10x Eternal Guard barely fit into a small piece of cover holding my left side, and I used my Tree Kin and Frostheart to block as much of the front as I could. Behind that was my Hurricanum in the middle, with archers all in range of it. 

During the game, we predictably clashed in the middle. I was able to tie up 3 entire units with a charge from the Frostheart, bogging down the right side of his army entirely. On the left, my Eternal Guard held their own against Chaos Knights and a Demon Prince for as long as I needed. He wisely kept his Glotkin pulled further back, since he was terrified of my shooting potential and wanted to keep using its command ability. I instead focused my ranged firepower on targets I knew I could secure kills on - his other heroes, Chaos Knights and Skullcrushers. By doing this, I removed his hero threats other than the Glotkin, and entirely freed up the right side of the table.

I was now on the offensive with the Phoenix and Hunters, who chased down the Glotkin with shooting and a long charge, killing it. At this point my Eternal Guard were crumbling under the pressure and I was focused on shooting the Chaos Knights and Demon Prince. The Tree Kin continued to tie up units in the center, and in a couple more turns, the bulk of his army was dead. I baaaarely not able to grab his objective before the end of the game though! So I scored a minor victory and moved to my second game, which I'll write about soon. 

I know this isn't a very detailed battle report, but since I don't have much time and it's been a while at this point, this is the best I can do! Hopefully the high-level recap is interesting still. I'm trying to hit the major points of each battle and describe the overall play/strategy. In this match it was to aggressively hold him in the middle with durable units while I shot is threats off the table, then to push offensively when I had the greater unit strength advantage.

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GingerGiant Judicator

GingerGiant

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The Eternal Guard are an incredibly solid unit. I spent a lot of time looking at Saurus Warriors, who benefit greatly from fielding high model-count units. Then you have the Guard. They're just good at what they do. Field them in 10, or field them in 30. If they find cover, you're looking at a 3+ Save with reroll. That 80 points you spent has, in effect,  90/40/22.5 wounds (against 0, -1, and -2 Rend, respectively) for your opponent to chew through. I'm tempted to throw Shield of Thorns on them, instead of my Treelord.

So, how long was long enough?

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Tidings Dracothian Guard

Tidings

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7 hours ago, GingerGiant said:

So, how long was long enough?

They are awesome. I would never do a unit of 30x because they scale in value so well when in cover, and 30x almost never fits in cover. 
If I remember right, they held out against a Demon Prince and Chaos Knights for two or three turns before I directed my ranged fire their way. I also had two hunting hounds there just to prevent the enemy from skirting around them, but the EG did all the damage soaking. There were three left at the end of the game I think. 

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awcamawn Dracothian Guard

awcamawn

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8 hours ago, GingerGiant said:

If they find cover, you're looking at a 3+ Save with reroll.

40 minutes ago, Tidings said:

There were three left at the end of the game I think.

Not only do they have a 3+ rerollable save, they have bravery of 9 (with reroll) while in cover as well. They die really well.

The game pictured looked really awesome, some really cool looking armies on both sides. What are you using for skinks, btw? Are they those shrubberies on a movement tray? Attack shrubberies? :o

Would love to see some close ups of the themed Hurricanum, looks great! 

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Tidings Dracothian Guard

Tidings

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9 hours ago, awcamawn said:

What are you using for skinks, btw? Are they those shrubberies on a movement tray? Attack shrubberies? :o

Would love to see some close ups of the themed Hurricanum, looks great! 

Yep! My army is mixed Order but I really want to maintain the feel of an old Wood Elf army. So everything not Wanderer is converted or custom made. The Skinks are a bit lazy, just flock with wooden blow darts sticking out. Like the Sprites from the old Wood Elf codex hiding in bushes!

5 hours ago, StuartyAlec said:

Quick question, do you feel that taking a gryph hound over the hunting hounds may be more beneficial? 
Against a deep striking army this could help tenfold, especially since your army is so shooty? 

I considered it, but opted for the hunting hounds because they are faster, have more wounds for the points, and can block more space on the table. This makes them more of a generalist tool in the list, allowing them to quickly get to an objective for a turn while larger, slower units run that way. They're also great for plugging gaps in the line, throwing at dangerous units to buy a turn, etc. In my final match against Stormcast though, I desperately wished I took a Gryph Hound instead though hahaha. 

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Aezeal Lord Celestant

Aezeal

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On ‎17‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 5:53 PM, Tidings said:

Here's a closeup of my "skinks". Very kind of the tourny organizer to allow them! Luckily, all my opponents loved them haha.

ZoVXPy5.jpg

I personally think they should only be allowed in as chameleon skinks :D

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