My reflections on my first tournament

[MightyOwl]

I went down to Warhammer fest this last weekend and played in the 1750pts AOS tournament - my first ever and had a great time.  I thought I would just share my thoughts on how parts of my army did and hopefully people will find that useful if they are thinking about their own armies.  It was not a massive tournament and I finished 16 out of 28. Only one other death player finished ahead of me at 14th, and they used a more flesh eater court heavy army.  Out of 5 games i got 2 minor defeats (though i made a massively stupid mistake in game one where I really should have got a minor victory - I chucked the win away), one major loss, a minor victory and a major victory. With the exception of one game I did not play one of the meta dominating lists.

 

My List:  (1740 pts)

Arkhan The Black (340pts)

Vampire Lord (140pts) (general, ruler of the night, cloak of mist and shadows)

Necromancer (120pts)

Mortis Engine

40 x Skeletons with spears (320pts) 

40 x Skeletons with spears (320pts) 

10 x Skeletons with swords (80pts)

5 x Dire Wolves (60pts)

5 x Dire Wolves (60pts)

Summoning Pool - (120 pts)

 

Skeletons - 5/5

These guys were easily my best unit.  They killed a LOT of things, and they were very resilient.  I only lost one unit of 40 the entire tournament.  In return they were my main killy unit, just grinding through everything they got into contact with (with the exception of a stonehorn. Avoid stonehorns unless you need to tie it up).  They soaked up a lot of damage and then just brought it back with the banner. At 40 models most of my opponents said they didnt think there was any points concentrating on the skeletons if they could help it, especially with them returning models.  I could recommend 40 skeletons with spears enough.  I would make it three units of 40 next time and use the Legion of Death battalion so they can move faster. The only downside to these guys is they arent fast so you need to do something to tie units up or grab objectives, which leads me too....

 

Dire Wolves - 4.5/5

As a unit they really do not deal damage at all.  However, if they caused that was just a bonus. I found they were excellent at grabbing objectives, holding objectives or tying things up.  This is because the unit is fast and surprisingly resilient for 60pts. In fact, i think i would never have an army without one of these units, probably two.  For their points they are just so useful - as long as you dont want them to kill things. And it doesnt matter if they get destroyed, they are only 60pts.  They were a close second to my skeletons for most consistent and useful unit.

 

Arkhan - 3/5

I am not sure I used him well, which isnt the fella's fault. In my last game i did however and he was very very effective, killing a lot of things and causing a fair amount of havoc amongst my opponents weaker backfield units.  I had brought him as a reliable spell caster to buff my army (ie big skeleton units), especially for mystic shield and VanHels.  Being able to cast two very useful spells a turn with a potential +3 to his casting (+2 if he is at full wounds and I kept him near the Mortis Engine for a further +1).  However, until the last game thats all I really used him for. He is really fast and great at taking on small units or crappy units.  When I used him aggressively in the last game I used him to fly around and cast spells and pick off vulnerable heroes and units which he did well.  He also was the focus of a lot of my opponents shooting. In hindsight, that was probably fine for him to be a bullet magnet as it meant my opponents failed to focus on my more important units. In the future I think I would try using the Vampire Lord's command ability on Arkhan sometimes instead of the skeletons to make Arkhan a fairly serious damage dealer with a long threat range. by giving him +1 attack for all his melee weapons.  I think that could really surprise people.  You could even combine this with Arkhan using VanHels on himself - at full wounds that would be 7 attacks with the spirit host, 7 with his mount(which is the important bit) and 2 each with his staff and sword.  That being done twice could be very nasty and its quite possible for him to get a turn one charge .  I think I will play around with this in future because I am fairly confident that used properly Arkhan could be a hidden gem with a lot of flexibility. I still would not put him up against other armies monsters however, except to finish them off.  I would be interested if anyone plays Arkhan this way at all?  

Finally Arkhan was good for summoning which was good - i will say more later. 

 

Mortis Engine - 4/5 

Pretty reliable.  I was a little too hesitant when using his Reliquary bomb but that was my fault.  The simple +1 to my casting was very useful.  It was also another big model that people seemed to focus on more than they maybe should have.  It was also pretty resilient which meant many of my opponents wasted a lot of time to destroy an 180pt model.  When it killed things with its shooting attacks or with its mortal wounds that was a nice bonus, but not something that i really counted on.  Its big movement range was something I think I did not use properly so other people might find it good to occasionally drop behind the opponent, get in their way, grab objectives and make them react to it.

 

 

Necromancer - 2/5

I really used him so Arkhan could cast VanHels.  Otherwise he did very little for me, and even with a casting bonus from the mortis engine always seemed to manage to fail casting rolls.  He did however prove useful to help spread a bubble for the death save.

 

Vampire Lord - 3.5/5
 Another unit I feel i did not use too well.  I mainly kept him out of trouble and used his flying move to keep a his ruler of the night save bubble in the right place.  His command ability was very very useful, and by giving a unit +1 attacks made one of the big units of skeletons even more effective.  I picked him over the wight kings because for twenty points more he could fly, is better in combat if needed, can cast a spell, he can heal wounds and most importantly he can use his command ability on any death unit, not just deathrattle like wightkings.  As my general I definitely took the view that I should keep him out of combat.  He only got into combat in the last round of the last game. I felt his ruler of the night ability and command ability were just too important to risk.  Just by being alive he was very useful in a passive way.

 

Summoning - 4/5

Useful and something I need to play around more with. It gave me a lot of flexibilty.  For three places of power I set up Arkhan so he could summon a cairn wraith onto an objective in the first turn. At full health near a mortis engine he automatically casts that spell so that meant it was a free point for the turn.  I then ran my dire wolves in front of the cairn wraith as a speed bump.  As a strategy I think that was an excellent idea. I could then mover Arkhan up for another object and bubble wrap him with the other units of dire wolves.  However, 3 places of power was my only major defeat. I played a mixed destruction list with Kunning Ruk and 2 stonehorns.  Not much I could do, but honestly I am not sure what I could have done against that list that would have made a difference.  Suggestions would be appreciated.

In other games I summoned what I needed.  In particular I found summoning black knights on objective/tarpits useful if I could make it so they wouldnt have to deal with enemies with rend. If the opponent had rend I would have summoned spirit hosts instead. 120 pts seemed like a really solid amount of points - it was useful, but not too much either.

 

Hope some of this helps. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

[Dragon10]

Very useful and a good read , thank you.

 

i haven't played against a stone horn yet but the stories I've heard , I hope to keep it that way haha sorry no suggestions

[CanHammer-darren]

Double stonehorn/kunnin rukk is a hardcore list. I don't really think any death list can consistently beat that. Maximizing regen can help and you have to get a. It lucky on saves. Tarpit stonehorn with zombies/skeletons and hit the rukk hard with mournguls and horrors/flayers. Bravery based damage wrecks most destruction

[Countmoore]

14 hours ago, CanHammer-darren said:

Double stonehorn/kunnin rukk is a hardcore list. I don't really think any death list can consistently beat that. Maximizing regen can help and you have to get a. It lucky on saves. Tarpit stonehorn with zombies/skeletons and hit the rukk hard with mournguls and horrors/flayers. Bravery based damage wrecks most destruction

I'm yet to find a solution to the stonehorn/rukk list in death. I've been able to deal with the Rukk or a single stonehorn but not all three. You just have to hope to get up early on scenario and edge a win that way. 

[CanHammer-darren]

I think you have to take hard to kill units and regen and roll a lot of 5 and 6s!

[Countmoore]

18 hours ago, MightyOwl said:

My List:  (1740 pts)

Arkhan The Black (340pts)

Vampire Lord (140pts) (general, ruler of the night, cloak of mist and shadows)

Necromancer (120pts)

Mortis Engine

40 x Skeletons with spears (320pts) 

40 x Skeletons with spears (320pts) 

10 x Skeletons with swords (80pts)

5 x Dire Wolves (60pts)

5 x Dire Wolves (60pts)

Summoning Pool - (120 pts)

Really like this list at this point size. The Mortis engine I've never used but might give it a go following this. Otherwise the only thing I'd do is drop the direwolves and have a 240 summoning pool - allows more flexibility on the dire wolves placing/sizes or could bring Harbingers into the game for a double tap turn one charge with Arkhan as you suggested. 

Good read though. Thanks

[MightyOwl]

@Countmoore

3 hours ago, Countmoore said:

Really like this list at this point size. The Mortis engine I've never used but might give it a go following this. Otherwise the only thing I'd do is drop the direwolves and have a 240 summoning pool - allows more flexibility on the dire wolves placing/sizes or could bring Harbingers into the game for a double tap turn one charge with Arkhan as you suggested. 

I very nearly went for this.  One reason was i didnt have the money or time to buy and paint some Harbringers. Definitely plan on trying this in the future.  The other reason was after umming and ahhing i felt i would prefer to be able to use both units turn one, rather than spend two turns of summoning to get the two units.  If summoning was exempt from the rule of one that would make a big difference. Also, im a cautious player by nature and went with what I felt was a safer option.  In hindsight your idea is probably better - also more likely to let me choose who goes first.

 

as for Kunning Ruk/double stonehorn, Countmoore is right - i can deal with one, maybe two of those things, but not all three.  Also, i learnt the hardway that stonehorns half damage. I found this out after a very luck curse of years caused 13 mortal wounds (enough to kill it), which was reduced to 7 wounds!!! i just laughed, but my opponent was genuinely very apologetic about the ability and looked a little embarrassed. he did buy me a pint afterwards at least . My fault for not checking special rules first!

[Solaris]

Sounds like you had a good time. Your list is very nice and interesting also, I like it Against the stonerukk list, there really isn't much you can do. To combat filth like that, you need to bring filth of your own (2 Mourngul or something like that).