A Monster Hunter's romp through AoS 2

[Kanamorf]

 2 tournaments in 2 weeks! What madness is this

BOBO was a great event, I can see why it would not be some people's cup of tea but I enjoyed myself and would recommend it to anyone. The venue was excellent with loads of space.

Game 9

Relocation Orb vs Chris White and his Beastclaw Raiders

Relocation Orb is a mission that can make you work really hard if the Orb moves are not in your favour, however in this game it kept moving, a lot, but odly it twice ended up in the same place it started, the odds on that happening must be fairly slim.

Chris had taken Bragoths Raiders for a combination of Pigs, Cows and most importantly 3 monters. There were at least 3 people using this batallion that I am aware of including @Soup Dragon. I think it is a strong addition to the Beastclaw getting them that much needed +1 to hit. The main draw back is again low model count so every death hurts.

The kill count on this game was always going to be high, him with high damage combat units and me with an anti monster list.

I think I slightly underestimated how hard they would hit on the turn they did their double pile in and I found myself in a rocky position when the dust settled however he had not quite managed to finish off all of the boars and he had lost a lot in the melee too. The important part was the Stonehorn was dead and I had a chance to finish off the 2 thundertusks.

I managed to get the Major Win in this game due to the higher model count and mobility to sit on the objective.

Kill points for 2000, kill points against 1160

Chris got my best sports for the weekend, we had a great game

Game 10

The Better Part of Valor vs Matt Shepperson's Beastclaw

Two beastclaw armies in a row, the moster hunting gods were smiling on me.

Matt and I talked a lot after the game about the scenario and how it plays, and this was the 1st time I think Matt had played it and he made a mistake.

In his first turn he burned 2 of his own objectives, the plan being that he could them move on in turn 2 and hit my army. I don't think he realised how fast I could get over the table and had left his Butcher standing on his 3rd objective. The boars raced across the table with Hand of Gork getting the fairly easy charge meaning I could burn the 4 remaining objectives at the end of my turn 1 winning the game. We played out the rest of the game for killpoints

Result: Major win 1510 kp, 1000 lost kp

Game 11

Again the monster hunter gods were smiling on me.

Shifiting Objectives vs Daniel Scott's Daughters of Khaine with Morathi

I think Daniel's army was:

Allegiance: Daughters Of Khaine

Leaders
Bloodwrack Shrine (220)
- General
Morathi High Oracle of Khaine (480)
Hag Queen on Cauldron Of Blood (300)
Hag Queen (60)

Battleline
20 x Blood Sisters (480)
5 x Blood Sisters (140)
5 x Blood Sisters (140)

Units
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (80)
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (80)

Total: 1980 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 107
 

I did not have Morathi on my monster's killed list so if nothing else happened in this game I was going to make her dead.

One of the none standard rule for BOBO was the roll off for first turn. It was important in this game as Daniel won and gave me first turn. I think if I had won I would have given him first turn and looking back this would have been an error.

I decided that I had to make a dent in his units early. Witchbrew is a real pain, rerolling wounds is nice but the bit that bothers me is the immune to battleshock, so it is the old Inspiring Presence and a buff to the unit (why GW why? Take away IP because it is too powerful and then give it out to a model that is 60pts and you can have multiple of <rant over />)

My sacrificial unit was, no surprises for guessing, a unit of maniacs. I had zero expectation of them getting the second pile in they are allows, I did however figure that they would do enough damage that Daniel would have to take battleshock on the unit of 20 snakes making more run away. Well things went better than I expected and there were some boars left after the snakes hit back and after battleshock I had 3 boars and Daniel had lost 14 snakes. Not a bad result.

I won priority in turn 2, 3 and 4 so I managed to get control of the objectives and again with more models hold onto them.

Morathi did what she does in turn 1 and went full snake, charging onto my lines. A combination of 2 battle rounds worth of hacking and lots of my stuff was dead including all of my Stabbas, they had however acomplished their job and she died at the begining of turn 3. Morathi is a pain, just being nearly immune to death for a minimum of 2 battle rounds is massive. The thing I had not thought about is that she is only one model so she is not great at solo capturing objectives, and she has a fairly large base so if you place her badly near scenery it makes getting other units in to help harder. Daniel had his bloodwrack shrine caugth up behind Morathi for a while not really able to help.

Result: Major Win 1580kp, 900 lost kp

Day one had been good to me, new monsters to kill and old favorites to chase too. Day 2 would not be quite as good.

Game 12

The problem with winning all three games on day one is you end up on the top tables on day 2 wondering what you have to do to kill 18 Idoneth Deepkin Eels. Answers on a postcard please because I have not worked it out yet

Total Commitment - @wanderingrogue

Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin

Leaders
Isharann Tidecaster (100)
Isharann Tidecaster (100)
Akhelian King (240)
Isharann Soulrender (100)

Battleline
10 x Namarti Thralls (140)
10 x Namarti Thralls (140)
10 x Namarti Thralls (140)

Units
9 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (480)
9 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (480)

Total: 1920 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 124
 

I had a plan to bunker up and weather the storm and see how I could react. The plan did not work

I set up with too much space in my castle and Gary used that space to the maximum. All 18 eels came down one flank and wiped out half my army in turn 1. I tried to push the other flank and get some points on the board so I could react while the eels were coming down the length of the table but it was very much a rear guard action in the hope that the eels tripped over and died without any interaction from me!

I have been thinking about how to beat such a list (more to come later) but for the moment and until the lightbulb goes off in my head I am putting this down to "one of those lists I will struggle against".

Result: Major Loss 1280 kp, 2000 lost kp

Game 13

<insert scenario name here> vs Darren Watson's Nurgle.

The scenario was the 4 objectives in a diamond with one in the middle where you score bonus if you hold the two opposite objectives. I forget the name and did not write it down and am not near my GHB at the moment.

Darren's version of Nurgle is 30 blight kings in a Blight Cist. Good bits, the Blight Cist has no effect on me. Bad bits 30 blight kings....

The game started quite well I won the roll off and gave Darren 1st turn, he moved up and scored 4 points. My first turn I took off the 20 marauders that were holding one objective and also scored 4 points.

I felt I was in a nice place at this point, and then I made a huge mistake. I won priority and for reasons that I still do not understand I gave the turn to Darren..... I think I was thinking that me already being in his back lines would mean he would have to go and send some of his army in a defence roll so I would blunt his offence. ERROR. A unit of 20 blight kings can do both. While I am not sure that I would have won the game if I had taken turn 2 I am sure it would have been a closer affair. 

The game went down hill from there. blight king exploding attacks are the worst thing that can happen to a bonesplitterz army, my defence is no armour and lots of wounds, he is lots of attacks and no rend. the 20 blight kings were deleting at least one unit per turn. If I had taken the second turn I think I could have tied it up in combat by carefully tagging both ends of the blob so he could not maximise attacks (it worked in my head on the car journey home, I am sure it would have been different in reality)

Result: Major Loss and I forgot to record kill points.

 

Tournament result 31st with 86 attending. I am happy with this as I know that had I played better in the last game it may have been better. 

 

 

[broche]

+1 one for "why game workshop Hag queen at 60 pts"

Also, why releasing underpriced model like Heel? They had their lesson with disc, now they are 200 pts? Why bother start with Heel at 160???  

Thanks for the write up!

[Overread]

I think context is important when considering the Hag Queen. Daughters of Khaine is a glass cannon faction focused around close combat damage dealing. Something like the Hag Queen is made to fit easily into that to give them some staying power in close quarters, but she's designed to support other units. The ability and hag queen is made to fit with other groups so whilst she is cheap on her own; the combo of taking other units to work with her is where the cost comes into play.

Plus once you are past the witches and sisters of slaughter; much of the DoK is actually quit expensive in points. 

[Kanamorf]

#BLACKOUT

@Chris Tomlin ran a top notch event at Firestorm games in Cardiff. I can say nothing bad about the event or the venue, they have their own chef! I will skim over the heat....

I managed to snag a last minute ticket for this event as I was supposed to be moving house this weekend but it got moved to EGGS weekend. 

Game 14

Shifting Objectives - Dan Bradsaw Idoneth Deepkin

I mentioned in my last post that the Eels would turn up again this time it was 21. If anyone has any suggestions on how to play against them, really I am all ears. Last time I tried 2 bunkers, this time I tried one bunker, my only other option is to spread out so he cant hit everything at the same time, I am going to try that next time.

Dan took turn 1 and sent in a unit of 9 fighty eels making a big mess as expected, loosing ~20 boars, 15 archers and a character.

My turn 1 went ok considering, I took two objectives, unfortunatley not the primary one and was in a position to challenge the third in the next turn, I won the priority into 2 and made efforts to get the third objective. Him getting all of his combats first put pay to that as I chickened out of most of the fights.

Anyway it was a bit on a none game as in his turn 2 the other 9 fighty eels turned up and made a mess.

Result: Major Loss kp 860, lost kp 2000

Game 15

Three Places of Arcane Power : Michael Wilson - Slaanesh

I played Michael at South Coast this year and we had a slaughter filled fun game which he just pipped me on points. So whe I saw the draw I knew I was on for a good game.

In a game where only wizards and heros with artifacts can score I actually have a great army, 4 wizards can do the job where most other armies only have 2-3 pieces that can score.

The first two turns were glorious combat, I got his Manticore with the artifact and had his sorcerer lord down to 2 wounds (a little unlucky but easy snipping for he archer now). The Exaulted GD of Slaanesh had made a mess of ~20 boars and was ready to pounce on the unit of archer. I made a small mistake in turn 2 not moving my wizard onto an objective only to loose him to a hoard of daemonettes. Bad but I was still happy with the position I was in.

It came down to the priority for turn 3. I win the roll and the EGDS goes down to 8 big stabbas and I shoot his scoring unit, he wins the priority and his EGDS kills my remaining 3 wizards.... I lost the roll

It was a great game but unfortunately another Major Loss to me

KP 860: Lost KP 2000

I will get you next time Michael (shakes fist)

Game 16

Scorched Earth - Ian Ralph Sylvaneth

I wandered away from this game and went into the shop to look at the sylvaneth models. I love the asthetic and I love the way they play.

I think this game revolved around one mistake that Ian made, he left his middle objective badly defended. 

Ian took the first turn and set himself up with charges from 3 Scythe hunters at one of my objectives but failed to make the roll. He summoned another 10 dryads into the middle of the board.

I got the ordinary boars across the board this time, he had only defended with 5 tree revenants which went down to the trample of hooves. I was 4" away from alarielle but got the point for the objective. You cannot burn the objective in turn 1 now, so begins Project Hold out till the end of turn 2.

Ian won priority into turn 2 and Alarielle charged the boars and the second unit of 3 scythes moved up to help the first unit. This time both units of scythes got the charge and decimated the boars that were guarding that objective. Ian decided not to but the objective as he felt 6 scythe hunters could hold out for another turn. Alarielle killed 7 of the boars but failed to capture the objective back off me.

My turn 2 I assaulted one of his flanking objectives and retreated in the middle so I was out of combat but still holding ready to burn. I picked away at the scythe hunters with one unit stabbas but did not do enough to completely remove them, I did however have enough models to capture.

End of turn 2 I am 9-6 up and there are now only 4 objectives left on the table.

Ian won turn 3 priority. The scythes killed off the unit of stabbas and Allarielle moved to a place to start threatening my middle objective. Ian made and excellent redeply through the woods that I had not seen to cature and burn my badly defended objective. On the other flank to scythes and stabbas continued to trade deaths, he did not manage to capture the objective this turn

I was a little out of position this turn so it was mostly about getting boars into a position for the next turn. I did nhowever get the second unit of stabbas into Alarielle. The stabbas did their job and Alarielle died.

End of turn 3 11-9 to the bonesplitters

Ian won priority into turn 4

With alarielle dying the threat from the Slyvaneth was lowered but I had not been able to get at the Branch(witch/wraith) that was summoning dryads. The thing that saved me here was the Mystic Waaargh Paint on my Prophet. This is just as good as I wanted it to be. I was making rolls against just about every spell that was cast against me, not all of them succeeded but I know there would have been 20+ more dryads on the board if it were not for that artifact alone.

Ian finally burnt the objective on my right flank that the scythes and stabbas had been fighting over and went up to 12 points.

I had another turn of boars running frantically from one flack to the other playing no real part in the game. I only scored 1 point, I did however finish off the scythes and another unit of summoned Dryads.

I won the priority into turn 5.

The boars were finally in position to charge his last objective, with the help of the stabbas that had finished off Alarielle. He was only defending with one Stormcast bolt thrower. I managed to capture it and burn it. I scored 3 points.

It all came down to the last turn Ian needed to capture and burn my final objective and score 3 to make the game a draw. Unfortunately for him he just did not have enough stuff left to remove the 20 archers and 2 characters I had left on that objective.

Result: Major Win 1830kp 860 lost kp

I got my first win of the tournament, and not an easy game by any stretch. I love Sylvaneth, I have played against them many times and dont think it has ever been a one sided game. Ian was a gent

 

Day two to follow tomorrow.

 

[broche]

1 hour ago, Overread said:

I think context is important when considering the Hag Queen. Daughters of Khaine is a glass cannon faction focused around close combat damage dealing. Something like the Hag Queen is made to fit easily into that to give them some staying power in close quarters, but she's designed to support other units. The ability and hag queen is made to fit with other groups so whilst she is cheap on her own; the combo of taking other units to work with her is where the cost comes into play.

Plus once you are past the witches and sisters of slaughter; much of the DoK is actually quit expensive in points. 

Not sure i understand your point? Cauldron is underpriced, Witch elf can easily be 4+/5++ in combat (and bouncing mortal wound), this is far from class canon.

Hag queen should realistly be priced be around 120. She is SIXTY. No character hit that number. For a  hero with that much impact on the board it's utterly insane.

A warchanter give a +1 to hit for 1 turn. She give better attack buff than that for a full round, AND immune to battleshock.

[broche]

@Kanamorf would a Greenskin warboss would be good in your list? Option to add 50% damage to either Maniak or Stabbas seem apealing to me!

[PlasticCraic]

@Kanamorf so I saw the Facehammer GT results, congrats on a great showing!

Any chance I could twist your arm into some batreps please?

[Kanamorf]

Hi all,

What with moving over 200 miles north, work failing to find a replacement and me having to drive back south every week for 3 days and work also blocking access to TGA from their work network I have totally failed to keep this up to date.

I will start typing frantically and get everything down asap