The Heretics Hideout

Over the Top 2010

2010-02-23T14:10:00.000-08:00

So, my first fantasy tournament has come and gone and a lot of fun it was too.
I went down to Hamilton with a solid plan, based on my previous results and experience at City Guard. The plan was to lose the first 4 games and play the guy in second-to-last place for the final game and maybe snatch a win from him. Things however, did not go to plan:

Game 1 - Carl Templetons Lizardmen.
Great guy, playing an army I hate due to the fact they are almost immune to my fear causers. A very close game which ended up as a win to me by a comp adjusted 12-8. Highlights include mounted Vamp + 1 ghoul taking down a Steg and my Grave Guard bunker slowly grinding down his TempleGaurd block, to leave just the Slann by the end of turn 6.

Game 2 - Phil Comins Daemons.
Phil and his Filthy Daemons. What more can I really say. The game started badly when he got Bolt of Change with Irresistable Force off on my Blood Knights and only got worse from there. The only mini-highlight was my mounted Vamp + ghouls giving his Bloodthirster a scare, before getting flanked by some Seekers and Fiends of Slaneesh. 20-0 loss.

Game 3 - Chas Roberts Empire.
Another great guy, a newbie like me. Really needs to find something cheaper than Reiksguard knights to use as diverters. A misjudged flee reaction meant his diverters ended up panicing a large block of swordsmen containing his BSB and a Warrior priest right off the table. The rest of his army never really moved out of his deployment zone, so when the enevitable fear and panic checks came, they had nowhere to run too. A fairly easy and sizable win to me, only marred by his 2 units of Ironguts which caused more damage than I would have liked. Comp adjusted 16-4 win.

Game 4 - Nikola Jaksics WoC.
Nasty, nasty army. Basically a Chaos Knight delivery system, and it worked a treat. 2+ armour saves, a bazillion attacks and high strength meant that these beasties ate me for breakfast on day 2, barely stopping long enough to swallow. Another 20-0 shlacking.

Game 5 - Sam Peters Brettonians.
I don't like Bretts. With everything having a 2+ save (no peasants in this knights army) my ghouls and skellies generally have trouble doing enough wounds to make a difference. I usually rely on my Banshee to do the serious damage, but with my Wraiths being absent this weekend, I had to find another way. Judicious use of Raise the Dead, combined with Van Hels to execute rear charges, along with remembering to chop up the squishy pegasus instead of it's heavily armoured rider to boost combat res. finally saw a large 6 unit melee in the center of the table swing in my favour, with my survivors running down 3 of his knight units in the last turn. 16-4 win to finish the weekend.

With 3 wins and 2 losses, I obviously performed much better than I expected to and it shows that the skill level of the guys I have been learning off at City Guard is a lot higher than I realised. It also shows that I have actually learnt something in the last 3-4 months, which is also nice.

Next up, Fluffycon!

Tournament season is here.

2010-02-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

The 2010 fantasy tournament season has started and my first event of the year (or ever as far as WFB goes) is Over the Top in Hamilton in just over a weeks time. My list for OTT is as follows:

Vampire Lord:Dark Acolyte , Summon Ghouls, Infinite Hatred , Walking Death, Flayed Hauberk, Blood Drinker
Vampire BSB: Dark Acolyte, Summon Ghouls, Walachs Bloody Hauberk
Vampire: Dread Knight , Infinite Hatred, Book of Arkhan
Necromancer: 2 x Dispel Scrolls

CORE:
10 Ghouls w/Ghast
10 Ghouls w/Ghast
20 Skeletons w/Full Command
6 Dire Wolves w/Doom Wolf
6 Dire Wolves w/Doom Wolf
Corpse Cart Unholy Lodestone

SPECIAL.
18 Grave Guard w/Full Command, Royal Standard of Strigoi
5 Black Knights, Full command

RARE.
5 Blood Knights w/Kastellan, Standard Bearer, Flag of Blood Keep

Total: 2243 points.

In a completely n00b moment I actually ended up submitting my list 3 times in the space of about 48 hours, due to some completely ridiculous errors. First error was as simple as putting a shield on my BSB, changed it, resubmitted. Then Luke pointed out to me during a test game that I only had 2/3 compulsory core choices. It was at about that point I realised why I had the unit of Skeletons in my original list, before I had dropped them out for Wraiths. Remove the Wraiths, reinsert Skellies, resubmit. Luckily, Phil was in Oz for Dogcon while all this was going on so the only problem it really created was a mailbox full of spam. Sorry Phil.

Test games have gone about as well as my games go, usually holding my own for 3 turns or so, before getting flattened in the last 2-3 turns. Blood Knights ARE nasty if they get thier charge off, but thats a big if a lot of the time. They are also fire magnets, which is why they have the 4+ ward save vs shooting banner. Now I just have to learn how to screen them right so they A) don't get lead around by 50 point eagles and B) actually get a useful charge off when required. However I have learned that the GG Bunker with General and BSB in the front rank will hold off just about anything.

I go into this tournament under no illusions about where I will place. If I am really lucky, and draw a complete idiot, playing an all snotling army, I may win a game. If I win 1 game, I will be happy, if I finish higher than last, I will be freaking amazed.

Xmas Goodies

2009-12-30T17:44:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a while. Again. In my defense, the last 4-6 weeks of the year are always nuts and time becomes a premium commodity.

So whats been going on in my little warhammer world since my last post?

* I made out like a bandit at the Bring and Buy. Not only did I manage to sell a lot of old stuff that has sat in the closet of years, I managed to pick up 21 Grave Guard, 15 Wolves (inc 2 Doom Wolves) and a Spirit Host for $40. SCORE! And they are already nicely painted so all they need is rebasing. DOUBLE SCORE!!

*In the 500 Warband tourney, I ended up running a Ghoul Spam list, which was quite successful

*Got utterly smashed my Phil Wu's Brettonians. Note to self: it is always better to charge than be charged.

*Birthday/Xmas Haul: with my birthday and xmas only a couple of weeks apart, I told everyone "Cash and Vouchers" and they did not disappoint. I walked into GW St Lukes with $400 in my wallet and walked out with a veritable mountain of plasti-krak.

Empire Knights - for conversion into Blood Knights
Empire General box - for conversion into mounted Vamp Lord and Vamp BSB on foot
Dwarf army book
Dwarf Battalion
Box of Dwarf Miners
Gotrek and Felix Omnibus 1
Giffle prize box containing a Warhammer Tower and some Dark Elves
A thanks for helping with the madness gift from James at GW

All in all a good haul for the Holiday season and a decent size dent put in the collection of my new army.

* On the painting side of things, I have finished most of my ghouls (Just two 3x2 unit fillers to finish painting) and have finished off all my skeletons and my Fell bats. Currently I am working on the last of the Black Knights as well as assembling the Blood Knights and mounted VC Lord. The mounted vamps should be assembled and based coated in the next day or so, ready for me to paint while camping over New Years.

Slacker..

2009-11-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

First a rant....To the bosses at Countdown supermarket in Glenfield: re-arranging your store does not "Enhance the Shopping Experience". All it does is turn a quick trip to the supermarket for rubbish bags and gravy into the search for the lost city of Atlantis and piss people off!

Now that I have that off my chest.......

I have been a little slack in the blog department lately. Not quite sure why, just have.

As far a fantasy goes, I had a couple of games against Richard Barbys Chaos Dwarfs a couple of weeks ago, where I actually managed my first win! This is a momentous occassion which really should have had it's own blog entry with banner heading and everything, but, meh, I got lazy. This game really was won in two areas. First, his large unit of Bull Centaurs, including a BC hero, and BC BSB took one look at the Wraiths floating past them on the other side of a hedge and ran right off the table like little girls. Then a combined charge on his main Warrior Unit (including Lvl 4 mage/General) by my Skellies with HW including Vamp hero, Black coach, wraiths (yes, he had an very wide frontage. 7 or 8 models wide) and Bats in the side ended rather predictably with his general dead, his Dwarf hero dead, a lot of dwarfs dead and what was left getting run down. Richard conceded the game at that point as we were running out of time and all I needed to do to secure the win was mop up a couple of blunderbuss units. (We had already played one game beforehand, with Richard beating me soundly)

Foll0wing that game I came to the conclusion that it was stupid to pay points for zombies when I could just raise them instead (my necromancer is equipped to do just that after all), so I dropped my zombies and added a unit of ghouls for some extra punch. Armed with this new lineup (and a bunch of skull pass goblins pretending to be Ghouls) I took on Glenns Lizardmen.

I will say right now, that whatever the lizard thing is that makes you discard 6's in the magic phase is completely gay. Completely. Totally. Utterly. Gay. It only affected me twice, so most people will probably say I shouldn't complain to much, however, both times I was trying to cast Danse, both times had the potential to swing the game my way, both times I rolled it up with Irresistable Force only to have Glenn shoot my joy-bubble down. The game ended up as a loss, but I feel I am slowly getting a grasp on what to expect from my units, now I need to brush up on what every other unit in the game is capable of. I guess the best way to do that is to play them all. Oh the horror, however will I cope with the arduous task of playing lots more Warhammer.

This weeks challenge will be a 500 point Warband tourny at the City Guard Bring and Buy day / Xmas party BBQ thing this Sunday. My list for this little event looks something like this:

Vampire Hero, Lord of Death, Nightshroud - 135
16 Zombies - 64
10 Skeletons - 80
10 Skeletons - 80
2 Bats - 40
3 Wraiths - 150
Total: 499

The Wraiths may be a little OTT in this environment (ethereal/terror) but we will see how it goes.

So many armies, so little time.

2009-10-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

It hasn't taken long for me to fall into the same habits I had while playing 40k. By this I mean a computer full of possible army lists and ideas for new army themes. I had 10 Chaos Marine armies sitting in the list and planning phases as well as 2 IG lists (Rogue Trooper guard and Genestealer Cult).

Now in addition to the VC list I am currently working on, I have already started looking at/planning a variant VC list. Since I brought BFSP a couple of weeks ago, I have also planned a pure Night Goblin army and have had serious thoughts about starting a Dwarf army. Although the sheer random fun factor of a NG army is appealing, the Dwarfs are probably the more serious contenders due to 2 factors: number of models needed (not many) and Slayers. However, the rumors of a new BoC book in the new year are also very tempting and a cav heavy Marauder army is also....................I need................help me................someone......................please.

So near and yet so far.......

2009-10-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

Could have (Should have?) had my first win on Sunday, vs Simons Goblin army. I will probably never get a better start to a game than I did with this one.

After charging a unit of trolls in turn 2, with both my Wraith unit and Black Coach I proceeded to break them, run them down and send half simons army running due to panic and/or Terror tests. Including 2 large blocks of NG's containing his Shaman Lord and his BSB.

However, a failed charge by my Black Knights left them vunerable to a flank attack by a Big Boss on Chariot (costing me 2 banners) and a unit of NG archers rolled double 1's for their break test, holding the charge of the Zombies and 1 Fell bat unit. This allowed a squig herd to jump all over the zombies from the rear and probably cost me a table quarter.

My vampire Lords new kit worked out quite well in the one combat she made it into, but she really needs to do more in the magic department. A large part of that problem probably falls on me to not try the big flashy spells all the time and just continually raise more minions.

My thrall was doing very nicely at chopping down his giant until the nasty critter picked him up and stuffed him in his bag. Once that happened the accompanying skellies had no real chance against the big lug.

Once again, my Fell bats proved less than useful at taking out small units of anything, once again muffing thier charge against a soft unit (5 wolf riders) and proceeding to be ground down in subsequent phases. Once again this fall more on the idiot with the dice throwing something other than 1s and 2s. Having said that, Simon making 4/4 5+ saves in the turn I charged did not help.

Taking all this into account, Simon is a good player, while I still suck and it is not really surprising that he managed to turn things around or that I failed to capitalise on the very good start I made.

Things I have learnt from this game:

* Fear and Terror are good weapons against lower leadership armies if you can use it properly.
* The Black Knights aren't strong enough on the flank by themselves, they really need the support of 1 or even both the Fell Bats units. The same probably applies to the Bats too.

On the modelling/painting side of things, I have now got all my zombies and my corpse cart and have organised with Simon to buy some of his old models (Wraith and Fell Bat) to complete the army. Now that I have it all, I just need to get it all (re)painted before Over the Top in Hamilton mid-Febuary 2010.

I would also like to give a shout out to Phil and say congrats on your lizard-daemons making it to the big time at this years Golden Daemon. Good luck for the big day. And once you have got that paint station sorted, let me know. I could be in the market for one too.

Second verse, same as the first.

2009-10-11T15:40:00.000-07:00

As the title say, game number two went much the same way as game 1, only worse. Playing Kyle and his Daemons proved to be a case of the blind leading the blind for the most part. His first game of Fantasy, my second.

Using LotR movement trays, Kyle has ported his 40k Daemons army over to a Fantasy Demons army. Running a true, Undivided army, his army consisted of a big block of Horrors + Herald, Daemonettes, Plaguebearers + Herald and Bloodletters + Herald, as well as 2 units of Hounds and a unit of Flamers. Unfortunately, Kyle showed me why Demons are Tier 1 (if only I could figure out the secrets to why VC's are) with a number of his units proving to be considerably harder than I thought they should have any right to be. Flamers @ S5 with 2 wounds??? Ouch. Kyles knack of making 5+ ward saves caused me much grief along with sheer nastiness of his Bloodletter block with Hatred. The Bloodletters killed my Zombies and my Generals Skeleton unit and well as a raised unit of zombies despite being charged in the Front, Flank and Rear simultaneously. The afore mentioned Flamers proved to be a lot tougher than I thought they would be, and with thier "stand and shoot" halving my Black Knights numbers, both the Knights and the Fell Bats were eventually ground down. (Next time, I will charge the unit that is under 1/2 range first, so that they cannot S&S).

There were some highlights though with my Vampire Thrall and Skeleton unit chopping up a unit of dogs and overrunning into the block of Daemonettes and my Black Coach chewing up the other unit of hounds before smashing into the afore mentioned Daemonette block and running them into the ground in a single round of combat.

After the game, it was pointed out to me that I had overcosted both of my skeleton units by 30 points a piece, meaning I still had another 60 points to play with. After a bit of umming and ahhing I ended up rejigging the kit on my Vampires to make them a little more useful.
I dropped the Lords Nightshroud and Helm of Commandment and replaced them with the Black Periapt, Tomb Blade, Crown of the Damned and the Vampire Power "Lord of the Dead".
The Vampire Thrall dropped his "Avatar of Death" power (20 points for a Great Weapon?? What the hell was I thinking??!?) and gained "Infinite Hatred", and the Sword of Battle. This will hopefully make them a little more useful in the combat phase as well as making my Lord a little more resilent.

On the painting side of things, I have finished the repaint of the Fell Bats, (with pictures to come shortly) and have started on the Black Knights and Wight King.

There has also been talk amongst some at the City Guard about running a "Club Champion" tournament in the new Year, with Phil Wu already roping me in as "trophy guy". As usual, it's not what you know, it's who you know that counts.

It has begun!

2009-10-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

Had my first real game of Fantasy at the City Guard yesterday. Unfortunately, I was not at my most organised yesterday. Having had a late (and drunken) night out with the boys watching the "Big Fight", I only decided to go to the club as I was dragging myself out of bed. At midday. Cue much scrambling around to actually find my Vampire models in the wardrobe and get them in a case to be transported, work out the proxies for stuff I do not yet have and generally put together a (somewhat) useable army. It wasn't until I was on the Harbour Bridge that I realised I had forgotten all the other important stuff, like dice, and measuring devices.
Luckily for me, Josh was kind enough to lend me some dice and the use of his tape measure during our game, as well as (metaphorically) holding my hand thoughout the game.

Obviously, as expected for my first game, I got absolutely snotted, with the only thing left on the table at the end of turn 6 being 7 raised zombies. However, it was great fun, in no small part to Josh who is truely excellent to play against. There were some memorable moments to be had, as there is in all games including:

*Vampire and his unit of Skeletons charging a Pump Wagon, only to have the Vampire completely whiff his attacks.
*Fell bats charging and then whiffing against 5 wolf riders and proceeding to get wiped out.
*Black Coach charging itself up to full power, only to end up stranded in no-mans land thanks to a Giants Flee reaction and subsequently getting snotted by a Black Orc boss on a Wyvern.

Rubber sword syndrome aside, I learnt a few things:

1) Deployment is crucial, if you get it wrong, it is hard to correct during the game.
2) VC's really need to stick together, to enable them to multi-charge enemy units and break them using fear.
3) I need more zombie models. My first couple of magic phases I did not a lot, because I did not have spare zombie models to raise. Luckily I have another box on order which will solve this problem.
4) I could really do with another spellcaster knowing Van Hels Danse Macabre. The Necromancer is probably the best bet, so I am going to drop the barding on my Black Knights to give me the extra 15 points I need to buy him the second spell.

I am also undecided on whether to keep the 2 units of 3 Fell Bats or combine them into 1 unit of 6. For now they will stay at 2x3, but the option is there.
Next week, I play Kyle and his Daemons, which should be funny, as we are both Fantasy n00bs. Should make for some entertaining and no doubt, highly confusing viewing.

Stirring the pot.

2009-09-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

Wow. Composition in WFB is a seriously touchy subject and one I think I will just stay the hell away from in the future, at least till I know a bit (lot) more. It's weird. I guess I have just been spoiled by the fact that, although people complain of "Codex creep" in 40k, the 3rd Ed Dark Eldar book is still competitive, even in todays 5th ed environment. Whereas in WFB, it seems a number of Army Books are so badly underpowered compared to others that most people have decided the game is almost unplayable without a large number of restrictions placed on what you can and cannot take in any given army. This is something I will just have to learn to work with and from now on I will stop stirring the comp-pot on the CG website with my n00bish questions and suggestions.

The Journey Begins.

2009-09-23T01:45:00.000-07:00

It has begun! My voyage into the land of the square base has officially started. I have started this blog mainly to chronicle the trials and tribulations, the victories and (many) defeats I will undoubtedly suffer in learning the ancient art of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, although I will no doubt throw some round base goodness in here too.

As a dedicated 40K player for the best part of 15 years, the trip into the land of the square base is actually quite daunting. The most daunting bit is the comp system used for WFB, which I feel will take some time to get my head around. One of the most daunting bits is the fact I already own a Vampire Counts army, left in the back of the closet since a brief foray into Fantasy back in 4th Edition. Apparently, VCs are one of the "big 3" armies these days and generally subject to getting comp-smashed.

With that in mind and with little to no real understanding of how the comp system really works, I have settled on the following list, which the good fellows at City Guard seem to think is at least useful.

2250 Vampire Counts list.

Heroes
Vampire Lord - Forbidden Lore, Dark Acolyte, Night Shroud, Helm of
Commandment, Dispel Scroll - 345
Vampire - Avatar of Death (GW), Flayed Hauberk - 145
Necromancer - Sceptre de Noirot, Dispel Scroll - 105
Wight King BSB - Barded Steed, Lance, Banner of the Barrows -
177

Core
20 Skeletons, full command, Banner of the Dead Legion - 235
20 Skeletons, full command, Spears, Warbanner - 255
30 Zombies, Musician and Standard - 132
Corpse Cart w/Balefire - 100

Special
3 Fell Bats - 60
3 Fell Bats - 60
5 Black Knights, full command, barding, Standard of Hellish Vigour -
205

Rare
Black Coach - 200
4 Cairn Wraiths w/Banshee - 225

Total: 2244

Luckily I have most of the required models already. All I have left to get is 2 Fell Bats, 1 Knight, 2 Wraiths, a box of Zombies and a Corpse Cart. I also have to repaint both my Vamps, the existing Fell Bats and the Wight Cav. as they are currently sitting in a bath of Simple Green. With a little bit of proxy goodness to get me by until I have everything, I should be able to start learning the game in the next couple of weeks.