Tuesday 28 February 2012

Rungfang V

Hi all.

So the army lists have been made public and the first round draw is up....I've been matched up with a dwarf army.

General observations:
1) Crown of Command is very fashionable. A little too fashionable. I feel like I have the only list that could have taken it that hasnt! I very much see the tactical worth of it-especially on my BSB in a unit of knights, but meh. I figured having a s6 BSB would be more cool (though Crown of command/somight is a tempting combo) and a little different.
2) lots of dwarfs and skaven. Seriously what's up with that? A little sad to see that none of them ventured away from the standard by too much especially with the prospect of multiple games vs them.
3) Glad I didnt bring a stank! With 4 dwarf armies, 5 skaven armies, HKB brets, and another Empire army out there that is 300 points of "free" for a lot of armies. Will my 30 flagellants be any better? Who knows. Historically that have been more fun to use and net me a better return (skink/gutter runner poison spam not withstanding), however the stank/walter combo is really, really good, but does mean most opponents give you a sideways look of "really?" I opted for less templates (only 3 of the available 4-stank taking up 2) because I wanted to rock the rocket battery and outriders before they all changed on me. 
4) Maybe I should stop using the super fluffy Empire forum as my stopping point for Empire wisdom. Any forum that has threads that go on for pages and pages about the fluff should be avoided for tactical info! The term "net list" and that forum dont go hand in hand too well :P

If the rumours are true this could/should be my last outing with the 7th ed. Empire book at an event. Excited by the prospect of not having the field 2 cannons, stank/walter/stubborn 1+ as stuff to be competitive (hopefully). Hoping to place mid to upper field, but then again having no crown of command/stank could sink me down to the bottom field. Least favourite prospect is a weekend of games vs skaven and dwarfs that could happen if I end up in the mid field all event. Best prospect would be a tournament of games vs different armies as a last hurrah! for the Empire before I start fielding hordes of demigriffon riders :P

Will post battle run downs after the event and hopefully a few pics as well (if I can steal the camera for the weekend!)

Saturday 25 February 2012

My latest efforts

Hey all.

Fresh off my experiment with MSU high elves in larger point games I have hit the modelling and started assembling my 3rd and 4th Griffons. I have tried to be a little bit more creative with these 2 so as to create some interest in an army that will have 5 of essentially the same "centrepiece' model.

So first of all the not so inventive one:

"Griffon carrying poor villager to their doom"

Nothing too exciting. Take Griffon, cut off all the mounted stuff, poorly greenstuff where feathers should be, rummage through spare bitz to find the giant hand that is carrying poor villager, spend ages cutting out the villager, find way it fits in eagle claw.

Rock on base is 1/2 the ent hand carrying rock that I thought looked a little like a rock with tree root growing over it. I will greenstuff a plant like thing to it when finished griffons.

Griffon two "swooping over broken pillar"




A wee bit more techical this one. First of all I cut off the left leg and pinned it back in on an angle (exactly like my first griffon but on the other leg). I had to use more greenstuff as this leg with a weakish pinned joint had to be able to take the weight of entire griffon. I then BOUGHT MY FIRST FINECAST miniture (the orc leaping off pillar from the LOTR range) purely to get the pillar which was in good order. The orc was a little worse for wear due to all the flash on a very small figure. A holding pin, lots of supper glue, plenty of tribute gifted to Sigmar, and all the metal extra crap I could find glued to the underside of the base, and it STILL needs an extra rock on the base for it to balance haha. 

Also on the table I am currently painting up another 10 archers including a standard bearer so I can up on of the archer units to 19/20. My archers were the only things not to die in pretty much every game, and a bigger unit gives me somewhere to put the lvl4. This is all part of my move towards "shoot, divert, SMASH" tactic I am slowly developing and will begin playtesting once the archers and 2 griffons are table top worthy.

And finally I re-made my mounted BSB for the Empire for its last hurrah! at Runefang V before the new book moves all the artillery to rare etc. Once list submissions have closed I'll post my list and my thoughts about what I expect it to do.

Sunday 19 February 2012

Homecon resutls and where it leaves the High Elves...

Righty. So Homecon was a HEAP of fun. FINALLY got to have another game vs Glen which was really fun and best demonstrated the holes in the list.

First of all my result: 13th, or 2nd to last. 4 losses-that were all effective wipe outs, and 1 hard won victory vs woodies.

Game 1 was vs Pete's Ogres. Impact hits...gross. Literally what won him the game, well that and a very cleverly executed list. Best part of the game was a unit of 10 archers taking out 2 ironblasters...IN COMBAT. 1st one had the help of an eagle and eagle noble in the flank for a run down. Archers ran into the front of 2nd ironblaster. Won combat due to my +1 CR for charging = run it down.

Game 2: Jack's Tomb Kings. Another hard match up due to big scary monsters. 1 died easily to MINDRAZORED spears, while the other refused to die/crumble no matter what I threw at it (eventually tarpitted it on ethereal mage!). That warkitty did 23 out of a potential 24 thunderstomps too. I was frustratingly close to winning the game twice. 1st time was when my Dragon princes got a charge off on his archer unit in front of the bunker. A few extra kills and I would have been into the general's  unit. Once that failed, my spears (fresh off MINDRAZORing a warkitty) successfully punched through the remainder of the unit....only to not roll high enough on the over run. sigh. Eagle noble took out heirotitan on the charge ftw! Another effective tabling.

Game 3 vs Joe's Woodies. Running the Woodie list from the Oz ETC team, Joe was a relative N00B with the woodies. However, he is a very good player who had me chasing him into a corner. a unit of 5 wardancers held up my Phoenix guard and spears for too many rounds of combat, delaying me getting everything into his blocks. Same thing with dryads in a forest I had to move through to get to his army. My lvl4 was dwellered turn 1 too. Best part was when 7 Phoenix Guard were front charged by 3 Treekin and rear charged by 5 wildriders...I killed 2 wildriders and then suffered NO casualties in return (4++ FTW). Win for me, but a very hard win.

Game 4 vs Glen's VCs. Took me till turn 4 to kill the mortis engine (longest it lived all weekend)...Eagle noble once again the hero. This game was lost in a failed overrun (needed a 3, rolled snake eyes), and my Phoenix guard getting stuck on a unit I was expecting to punch through (ward save, why art thou abandon me????). A case of trading too many points at the wrong time. Eagle road blocks dying the mortis engine (and therefore defeating the point of the road block) didnt help either!

Game 5 vs Sams OnG. lost turn 1 when goblins were hand of gorked 20 inches forward, releasing fanatics that killed my Dragon Princes, causing eagle noble to panic off the board. Waagh-tillery did the rest and I did not have the numbers to sustain a grind and was tramped down quickly...1 kill short of getting his Black Orcs grrr.

THE GOOD THINGS:
1) The eagle noble with defensive kit is not a permanent fixture. Did what I expected him to do (kill monsters) perfectly.
2) The core. Spears and archers will never let you down; they do exactly what you expect them to do. 20 spears however is not enough as 1 wound and lose 3 ranks. 25 is a much better number!
3) The Eagles
4) Dragon Princes. Only got 1 charge off all event, but everyone saw them as a threat, giving the rest of my army some breathing space.
5) robes on the lvl4.
6) Did you know great Eagles are ws5??????????? I always thought they were ws 4!


THE BAD THINGS:
1) MSU at this points lvl (well, at the extent I took it) does not work unless your opponent has to come to you and has no impact hits...so basically vs WOC. I thought the number of units meant I could create a swarm and get lots of flanks etc. Instead, I just got in my own way. Maybe less, slightly bigger units would be been better...
2) Phoenix Guard are a big pile of fail. They excel at ONE THING...not dying, and even then that cannot be relied on. 1s4 attack does not kill anything, meaning that I needed the magic buffs to do anything.

So what does this all mean for the High Elves?
1) Phoenix Guard go back to being cool display models and the Whitelions make a come back as a combat block...preferably horde formation.
2) less units, but not necessarily much bigger units. 7 Swordmasters pack a huge punch, but still have a "throw away" feel about them. A good balance I am looking forward to exploring.
3) 4 Eagles. Need the chaff to get the set ups and protect the vital combats. 2 die too quickly and cannot do everything they need to.
4)  More shooting and bigger spears.
5) A support mage with magic missiles. OMG a must when using shadow!
6) Having an army that can deploy "back" and take its time. I dont feel comfortable rushing an army forward to get position as it usually means running into opposing army traps. 

My musings over the weekend had produced my first list for playtesting now that I have 2 more IoB Griffons on the desk waiting conversion:

lvl4: shadow, scroll, robes        325
BSB: GW, AoC, Aolight            158
Eaglenoble: Lance, DA, Chshield, 4++    195
lvl1: Fire                100

10 Archers: M                115
20 Archers: M, SB            235
25 Spears: FC                250

27 Wlions: FC-flame, ICI        450
2x7 Smasters                210
5 LionPrinces: M            160

4 Eagles                200

2398

Very conscious of only having 2 combat blocks, but will be interesting to see how it plays out considering all the stuff that can redirect etc. I'm also thinking whether shadow is the "best" lore for a list like this. Maybe beasts would be the better choice as it also has all the tools needed to deal with stuff, and less of a need to be in combat to do so. 

There is also the option of dropping the swordmasters and Lionprinces for a 2nd white lion block if the smaller stuff if finding itself a bit useless/out matched vs stuff that is not WoC.

The musings continue...

Thursday 9 February 2012

Homecon II List: ode to stupid international delivery times and frantic painting

Righty, so Homecon II lists have been submitted, so I can now safely reveal my list to all.

I am taking:

lvl4: (general) shadow, scroll, Folariath's Robes, dragonbane gem
BSB: GW, Armour of Caledor, Dawnstone
Noble: Eagle, Dragon Armour, Lance, ch. shield, talisman of preservation
2x20 Spears: Full Command
2x10 Archers: Musician
22 Phoenix Guard: Full Command-amulet of light and flame banner
3x6 White Lions
2x5 Swordmasters
5 Lion Princes: Musician
2 Eagles

SO a nice MSU list with Phoenix Guard bunker holding all the points (waitin to get 13th or gatewayed)

I had a practice game last night vs Dave's skaven that was missing a furnace and storm banner. My many units gave me a good advantage in setting up favourable charges etc, so that was great. 5 Swordmasters vs 41 slaves (enfeebled to s2) = swordmasters kill most of them until 6 wlions came to help with the clean up-good indication of their power vs hordes!
5 Mindrazored swordmasters in flank of HPA = dead HPA (who came back to life on 6 wounds, so all for naught haha).

THe units of 6 white lions were not as amazing as they were in the 1200pt tournament, but in that event I did not have to take on massive hordes of s3 which I know they are not that flash hot against (however vs such lists they can become great redirectors and road blocks).

However, it was not the list I was wanting to field. What I wanted to field relied on stuff arriving from the UK.
My preferred list:

lvl4: (general) shadow, scroll, robes
BSB: armour of caledor, ICI, luckstone
Noble: Eagle, dragon armour, lance, ch, shield, talisman of preservation
38 spears: FC-gleaming pendant
2x10 Archers: Musician
26 White Lion: FC-amulet of light, flame banner
3x6 white lions
2x5 swordmasters
5 Lion Princes: M
2 Eagles

KEY DIFFERENCE

What I wanted to run had a serious hammer unit = the spears could be a massive anvil of grinding awesomeness. However since running the Phoenix Guard the spears need to become a more offensive unit = 2x20 to give combat flexibility

Also my original idea has a cool Chrace theme...kinda broken with the Phoenix Guard, however they were very fun to paint and I now LOVE the models.

I'm not going spend the weekend thinking "man, a horde of s6 would be useful about now", instead it is going to be about tanking and setting up the combo charges the good o' fashion way. THIS WILL BE MY FIRST EVENT IN 8th (of proper sized games) NOT RUNNING A HORDE UNIT OF KILLING AWESOMENESS....looking forward to see if I actually have some tactical skill beyond shoving millions of attacks into something. With a tough field I am really looking forward to the games and will be using them as a chance to really learn how the High Elves work and test their weaknesses and strengths vs top caliber opponents.

Saturday 4 February 2012

Painting update-Dryads and Phoenix Guard

Sup all.

Sorry for the delay. Laziness got in the way meaning setting up the tripod seemed like too much work.

Anyway, as promised my new dryad colour scheme.
I cannot take the credit for the colour scheme. I found it on some blog that was linked in a signature of a contributor to asrai.org. Basically the entire model get's the "Sam treatment" (dheneb stone). Then I went over all the sticky out parts with skull white. The red was then based coated the cital foundation red, dry brushed blood red, then dry brushed vomit brown (lightly!). I then covered the entire model in Devlan Mud. Any bones were then highlighed bleached bone and the leaves were base coated dark angel green, then goblin green, then goblin green/rotten flesh mix for highlight.

You will also note that the models are based! Very, very exciting. 2 tones of static grass to give it a foresty feel. No rocks or anything like that were added because a lot of my woodies have stuff on the base anyway to add spot interest here and there.


Right-now onto the Phoenix Guard:




 Only the front 2 ranks painted so far. You will notice my BAMF Prince on the left corner and mage in the right corner of 1st pic. This is because I am 99% sure I will be running a block of these guys at Homecon with Mage Knight Prince and Robed lvl4 with Shadow (and banner of sorcery ofc!), So I figured  I would get a group pic to show their coolness. I initially was only going to use them because my extra whitelions have yet to arrive (grrr), but the more I painted them, the more I wanted to use them because they also look cool. Mage Knight then got added to the idea because he is also cool....so it spiralled haha.

On the command pic you will notice the unit champ is too cool to use a weapon. He instead points and stares at his enemies and kills them that way. I also did my first EVER wet mixing on the banner to get the flame affect. Up til that banner any flame I have painted has either been 3D or very small (see BSB banner). This large area presented challenges for the "just layer it" approach as it would look too obvious. SO with a bright orange "mid tone" base colour to work over I went about moving from Sunburst Yellow to Bright Orange, to Blood Red, to Red Gore. Not as hard as I feared it would be...but not a technique to be used on a mass scale! Just good to have another trick up the sleeve.

So that's that. Next post will most likely be my finalised Homecon List. I have settled on taking the High Elves (Empire can wait for Runefang), so will be experimenting with lists till then (99% settled on list-stupid tweaking!).