lare2

Managed 3 turns last night before we called it – hard to tell who would’ve won but he was 2 points clear when we finished. We were there 3 hours. Both of us ran lots of models… I forgot what running a horde army was like. Used to run LoN and moving 120 skellies used to break me, especially at tournies. I’ve movement trays but I’m gonna have to remember all the old fast play techniques when it comes to tournies. Anyway, thoughts on my list: Scarlet Doom and Bladegheists Yeah, great. My two block of 20 hit like a brick to the face. The mortal wounds on the charge are savage and when they hit with all the WoT buffs, they are really good. Defensively as well, their size means it’s really tough to munch through them. The hardest thing they came up against was 40 zombies. Zombies’ mortal wound output is pretty high but I never lost a bladegheist unit, due to resilience and healing. In addition, turning off Inspiring Presence is so good against horde armies. My second unit wiped out a unit of 20 Grave Guard (GG) in one swing through the combination of mortals, attacking, and then losing the rest to bravery. It was really hard to get as many in contact with the enemy as I wanted though and that 1” range really is a pain. Plus, with how many of them there are, it’s hard to get multiple WoT’s off against a unit as there are just so many of them on big bases. KoSoES So good. He ran in with a unit of Bladegheists. The free all out attack is worth its weight in gold and I love his ability to attack alongside a unit. He was surprisingly tough as well and singlehandedly held up Mannfred by himself for 2 turns. Being able to ignore rend means a single 6 wound model can really just tie up the big hitter units, which have dominated AoS recently. Bad rolling on the 3rd meant he popped. Was very impressed with this chap. Chainrasps I love these little dudes. I put them in space and dropped them 9” away from the enemy front line to work as a screen and to threaten midfield objectives. They worked a treat. He took first, attacked my screen with his and bounced clean off them. The rasps then retreated over his screens, allowing my Bladegheist to wipe out his screens, whilst still having my rasps working as a screen against his 2nd line of assault. Cheap, cheerful, and versatile WoT generators. Again, all 3 units survived all 3 turns. Kurdoss Meh, he was alright. I only managed to steal one CP and he does hit hard but I wasn’t massively impressed. I had him dominating the centre with the SH and GoS but I’m not sure if I’ll focus on him moving forward. The best he did was when 20 GG popped up in my terf. He span around with 6 SH and mullered the lot. He does hit hard but… that’s pretty much it. I think I want a bit more utility if I’m gonna include one of our big characters. I just found I was missing Lady O a lot. SH I think I’m a fan of running 3x3. They really can farm WoT and offer a lot of protection for a hero. Last night though, the only time they were in combat was with Kurdoss against the GG and I rolled low on the charges, making his GG -3 to hit. Without the minuses to saves, they hit like wet noodles. GoS Great. This guy, I think, is gonna be an auto-include for me. The +1 to wound is just so good and who doesn’t like magic? As I knew I’d be facing hordes, I changed the spell to Spirit Drain. When it went off, it was always guaranteed wounds. Had him with Master of Magic and Arcane Tome as he was my only source of magic. Wanted to make sure I could cast to heal and cause damage each turn. Every time I tried to cast Emerald Swarm though, it was dispelled.

Just packed up the below for my game tomorrow night. Playing a regular opponent with his Soulblight. He's a very good player. Will let you know how I get on. Craven King Ball Scarlet Doom, battleline grand strategy, charge triumph Kurdoss – 210 (BR) GoS: General, MoM; Arcane Tome, Soul Cage – 150 (BR) KoSoES – 155 (BR) 10x Chainrasp – 110 (BR) 10x Chainrasp – 110 (BR) 10x Chainrasp – 110 (BR) 20 x Bladegheists – 350 (BR) 20 x Bladegheists – 350 (BR) 3 x Spirit Hosts – 125 (H) 3 x Spirit Hosts – 125 (H) 3 x Spirit Hosts – 125 (H) Emerald Lifeswarm - 60 1980

Interesting. Very much appreciated. I'm not a big fan of magnetising but if you get two then it shouldn't be a problem. Cheers!

Finally gonna get round to making my Black Coach tonight. Using the new book, what are people's thoughts about which weapon to take? I wanna say Grasp for the ability to shoot but I'm woeful at rolling 4+.

Not sure if true but: Book - £32.50; €42.50; $55 Awlrach - £30; €40; $50 Craventhrone - £27.50; €35; $45 Dice - £24; €31.50; $38 Cards - £19; €24; $33

Picked up the Scriptor the other night from ebay for a decent price. Very excited for him to arrive!

Really nice to see the Craventhrone available so soon. Wasn't expecting that. Know they're not the best but still want to pick them up. Expecting them to be ca.£30.

Sounds hilarious! Will have to give him it a go.

Just wondering, I know SCE have unique enhancements; do all 3rd ed. books? If so, I've not seen any for NH yet. In other news, I love the Lord Executioner model. Been thinking about trying to get him to work. Give him Arcane Tome, Flaming Weapon, and 3x3 Spirit Hosts. That's a little ball of death, right there.

I've a game lined up again for next Thursday. Aiming to see what Kurdoss can do this time in a Scarlet Doom list as I should have my 40 Bladegheists up and running. Will let you know how it goes.

Dude, your blog got me through 2nd edition. Hoping you do another for 3rd!

After having slept on it and mulled on it some more, I wanted to give a summary of how it went. Apologies for the wall of text but I couldn’t seem to see if there was a way to hide it all behind a spoiler tab. Subfaction: Emerald Host was actually really good and I rolled high to target 4 units. This really helped chip away at his general and 3 of the little guys, one of which was hiding in the backfield but still died to this turn 4. This combined really well with the Terminexus, which was outstanding, especially considering he had no magic to despell it. 2d3 isn’t to be scoffed at, especially when combined with Lady O’s shooting, making it 2d3+d6 mortals per turn. Lady O: Speaking of Lady O, she was class. As predicted, she was too much of a target and two of the big lads targeted her throughout the game. We were playing the vice as well so there was always going to be a rush for the centre of the board. I took the spot early and he never managed to shift her. Grief-stricken was amazing when it went off but I only managed it once. Putting a markerlight onto a unit, when combined with all the other WoT debuffs, savages a unit. Having Soul Cage on her really helped as well. Knowing that I had a guaranteed fight last on a unit allowed me to choose -1 save when I rolled high. She also hits pretty hard as well, especially when combined with Stun. I could never seem to remember Mortarch of Grief though so missed out a lot there. Spirit Hosts: These chaps were grand. They tanked a lot for Lady O – something like 18+ wounds. Two units died protecting her and the third was depleted but she healed it back up. I went for three separate units as I wanted to farm WoT. Glad I did because the first time I did it, my brain hurt with trying to keep track of all the debuffs. Ended up getting some pen and paper. Can’t remember now exactly what it was but I do remember -3 to the save roll. Spirit Hosts hit very hard when they’re suddenly essentially on -3 rend, especially when hitting on 3+ (Grief-stricken) and wounding on 3+ (Nightmare Lantern). Any concerns I had about trying to kill a giant per turn were quickly assuaged. GoS: Really happy with this chap. His Nightmare Lantern came in handy so many times and his spell just continued to replenish units. Couldn’t have asked for more. In the end he just hung out with Lady O and was never targeted, being the perceived less attractive option to kill. Yeah, nothing much to say about him but that he’s a dandy utility unit. He did help stack WoT mind and his damage isn’t too shabby. Felt confident charging him in as well knowing Soul Cage was in effect. Chainrasps: Loved them. The two units of 10 just wandered on the wings. One unit died to a big lad but the other ended up protecting the Krulghast in the later game. Yeah, they were handy. The big unit of 30, however, joined in the fight in the centre. They were barely scratched when they were targeted – an unmodifiable 5+ save and a 5+ ward really does have an effect. Plus they added to WoT and these little dudes, attacking twice and in two ranks, really hit hard when they’re essentially at, for example, -3 rend. Dreadscythe: I didn’t know what to do with these girls. I had both units in deepstrike with the Krulghast. Dropped all of them in and targeted the little giants. The Krulghast shot at one, damaging him, before I failed one out of two charges. The unit that got in did all right, taking off 10 wounds, but then he swung back and wiped it out. In his turn he then charged the second unit and wiped that out as well. So much for the Dreadscythe. Don’t know really what to think about them yet. Krulghast: This chap just ran away when his Dreadscythe died and pestered the enemy via shooting. Having that -1 to damage really helped in the centre of the board as well. Yeah, he was OK. I wasn’t massively blown away with him but he did his part. All in, I was very happy with how the game went. There’s a lot to keep up with and my brain was spinning by the end of the game. As said, we hit hard in our turn but in theirs I think we really do have the potential to crumble. Trying to avoid the double turn happening to us has been on my mind all day. I had a lot of drops and was forced to go first. I do think that if he’d won priority turn 2 I would have been in a lot of trouble. I think we’re always gonna have a lot of drops so really need to plan for being double turned

Tabled giants the top of turn 5. Initial impressions are we hit like a sledgehammer in our turn but are really susceptible to being wiped out in the opponents. I reckon my opponent could've easily won if he got the double turn going into turn 2.

What a time to be alive!

Thanks! Will have to take a look before tonight!

Cheers. Truth be told, I built it more so just considering what models I've got built as I've a game tonight. I've everything excluding the new stuff but never bothered building most of it. My logic, however, is for Lady O and the GoS to be central and to really take a hit as they'll be pumping out the mortals listed above per turn. One unit of SH would deepstrike with Lady O and the GoS, whilst the other 2 would leg it forward to join them. I'm confident that Lady O being front and centre, causing that amount of mortals, would be too much temptation and 3x3 offers her potentially 27 more wounds, plus the SH will do damage in return. That little cluster should hold up quite a lot of their army whilst mine does whatever it wants. The Krulghast would support the Dreadscythe, pinging wounds but hanging back to get the 3+ 3+. I think he'll be alright and, to quote Ivan Drago, if he dies... he dies. This cluster would float on a wing and try to target weaker units, aiming for opponent terf objectives. They're incredibly strong spells. I chose Spectral Tether as the GoS will teleport as soon as possible back to the 30 man blob of rasps, which by that point will be on a midtable objective. They will then do nothing more but aim to survive. The other 2x10 Chainrasps are there to defend home turf and to hunt objectives. Soul Cage is on Lady O as, as said, I'm expecting an attack there and I'd rather all my SH and her fight first.

Been looking at Emerald Host myself and came up with the following, which coincidentally runs Dreadscythe: Lady O: Soul Cage – 340 GoS: General, MoM; Midnight Tome, Spectral Tether – 150 Krulghast – 150 Chainrasp x30 – 330 Chainrasp x10 – 110 Chainrasp x10 – 110 Spirit Hosts x3 – 125 Spirit Hosts x3 – 125 Spirit Hosts x3 – 125 Dreadscythe x10 – 160 Dreadscythe x10 – 160 Terminexus: 85 The list's mainly centred on Lady O and the GoS, who'll deepstrike in. She'll shoot d6 mortals, he'll autocast Terminexus to d3 mortals to a lot of units, and then Emerald that'll cause d3 mortals to d3+1 units. Swingy but if it spikes then it will be hilarious and savage all those little heroes.

Cheers Ranzou. I've only just noticed that elite tag on warscrolls... that's what you get for scanning.

Quick question, do any of our units include command models? Therefore, can they give command abilities? Normally a warscroll would say something like 'this unit is lead by...' Ours just says stuff like '1 model can be x'. Thanks in advance.

You're right and I'd not considered them being locked into Grieving Legion. If true, you'd not be able to run Bladegheists as battleline with, for example, Kurdoss.

Those are for narrative. I've not seen the matched play ones yet.

We haven't seen our battalions yet... unless I've missed something.

Just the one choice. It says in the bit in italics at the start of the scroll.

Sorry. Read that wrong. I missed that it could stack first time as well. Had to reread the blurb under Wave of Terror.

Thanks for the pointers. I run them in my PtG campaign so will see how they do there before jumping into matched play with them. Honest Wargamer's done the below. I enjoy his vids. About to start watching it whilst doing the dishes.