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Post by bierbaron on Dec 5, 2021 19:29:32 GMT
Onto the next game. My WoC consisted this time of: Daemon Prince with Chaos armour, Mark of Slaanesh, Lore of Slaanesh, Wizard Level 2, Scaled Skin, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem, Sword of Striking [375pts] Chaos Sorcerer [155pts] Mark of Slaanesh, Wizard Level 2, Lore of Slaanesh, Enchanted Shield Core Chaos Chariot, MoS [115pts] Chaos Chariot, MoS [115pts] Chaos Chariot, MoS [115pts] 6x Chaos Warhound [30pts] 19x Chaos Warriors, CMS, MoS, Shields [334pts] 3x Skullcrushers of Khorne, MS, Ensorcelled weapons [254pts] My opponent also fielded WoC: Chaos Sorcerer, Barded Steed, Lvl2, Lore of Fire, Sword of Strife, Chaos Familiar 5 Chaos Warhounds 20 Chaos Marauders, CMS, Light Armour & Shields Chaos Chariot, MoK Chaos Chariot, MoK 6 Dragon Ogres 1 Chaos Spawn of Nurgle I felt immediately a bit bad, since his list was not very optimised, IMO you just HAVE to take ensorcelled weapons on Chaos Knights, and possibly Great Weapons on Dragon Ogres are almost mandatory, too. I liked that he kept his spendings on characters light, though. We rolled for spells, I got Choir and Pantasmagoria on my Daemon Prince, and Acquiescence and Frenzy on my Sorcerer. He rolled Fire Cloak, Flame Cage and Flame Storm on his Sorcerer. Deployment
Not pictured is his second Chariot, which is stranded far off to the left flank from my view. I rolled the first turn and moved the whole font ca. 8 inches forward, except the Warhounds which marched and screened the Skullcrushers. In my magic phase, I succesfully cast Acquiescence on the Dragon Ogres, then the few dice were spent. Of all his units, this struck me as the most dangerous. Since he screened them with his Warhounds, they would lose a whole turn now. In his Turn 1, he tried to charge my Warhounds with his Knight unit, the Hounds fled, and he missed the redirect. He tried to block the impending charge of the Skullcrushers with his Spawn, but this did not help. The Marauders decided to go mushroom hunting in the woods, and his right Chariot tried to get to the party. Judging from the picture, I think he even accidentally marched the Chariot. His magic phase was rather uneventful, he got off the Flame Cage on the Skullcrushers, but it did nothing. My Turn 2 saw a number of charges, the two central Chariots charged his hounds which held, the Skullcrushers charged the Spawn, and the right Chariot charged the Knights directly. I ordered combat in a way which would lead the Skullcrushers to fight twice in this round. The Flame Cage again did nothing to them. In my magic phase I rolled six dice, and the sorcerer extra-frenzied the Skullcrushers with IF on three dice, the miscast (3) killed eight Chaos Warriors and cost the Sorcerer a Wound, but he stayed alive. The remaining dice vanished. Close combat ran as smooth as possible: the Skullcrushers killed the Spawn with ease, and overran into the Knights. After impact hits etc. six Knights were dead, I took only one wound or so in return, and the Knights packed in and were caught by the Chariot. In the center, the impact hits alone killed the Hounds, and both Chariots successfully overran into new enemies, the Khorne Chariot and the Dragon Ogres respectively. Turns would now become even shorter without his magic. In his Turn 2, he moved the Marauders to the edge of the woods. Onto close combat, the battle between the Chariots was close, his Chariot lost and held, and the middle Chariot got pulverized by the Dragon Ogres, but not before one DO got felled by the charging Chariot. My Turn 3 again saw a charge, the Daemon Prince charged the flank of the Khorne Chariot, the plan was to overrun and get out of the charge angle of the Dragon Ogres. My Chaos Warriors decided they want the Sorcerer out of the unit and oriented themselves towards the center. The Skullcrushers and the Chariot on the right flank prepared for a charge on the Dragon Ogres. My magic phase was more successful then expected, I got bubble Choir off with IF and killed three Marauders, the Khorne Chariot and put eight wounds on the Dragon Ogres, killing two. I read the FaQ for the BRB after the battle, and so I was unaware that the Daemon Prince would have gotten a free combat reform or an overrun, but as I not knew, the Prince had to take the Dragon Ogres in his flank. He rolled three extra WS, A and I after his massive Choir. The Dragon Ogres did their hail Mary charge on the Daemon Prince. I am unsure why his Marauders did not try to charge the Chariot next to them, they just moved forward. Also, his second Chariot still tried to circle around the forest. In the only close combat, The Daemon Prince inflicted four wounds on the charging Dragon Ogres, and the remaining six attacks of the DOs mostly missed due to WS10, one wound was saved. The Dragon Ogres lost by two, but held. After that, the combo charge of the Skullcrushers and the Chariot killed the Dragon Ogres. The Chaos Warriors charged the Marauders in the woods, which fled only three inches and got caught. My Sorcerer cast Acquiescence on the Khorne Chariot to keep him from charging. In his last turn, with random movement the Khorne Chariot did virtually nothing, and subsequently got charged by my Chariot, which took a risk by rumbling through the woods, but came out unscathed. End of Turn 5, the table was empty. Slaanesh Magic has some duds, but Acquiescence and Cacophonic Choir are pure gold! This was a very one-sided game almost everything went my way, and my dice were on fire all the time, too. I felt very confident after deployment, and it only got better from there. Sure, I got lucky sometimes, but I would say this is only a "win more" effect. We had a small chat after the game, and I gave some recommendations on unit and character equipment etc.
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Post by bierbaron on Dec 8, 2021 8:02:49 GMT
After playing quite regularly now, and having witnessed additional games I think it is a good time for a first recap of WFB 8 for me. I remember when we founded our playing group, the most veteran player of the group said that in his opinion eighth edition is the best the Warhammer Fantasy game has ever seen, including fanmade successors like T9A. So the hopes were high in the beginning, as I had made my first acquaintance with Warhammer ca. 2000 with 6th edition, which was very fun at first, and I still remember the great time of new army book rumors discussed on forums, attending tournaments etc. But as the advent of 7th edition came, my relationship with the game had become a bit more complicated, as I felt some issues which were not to be remedied by 7th.
But on to 8th now. It is by far the best Warhammer Fantasy that I have played so far. Really almost everything I had an issue with in 6th or 7th is better in 8th.
The games feel much faster, as the "fiddling phase" has been eliminated by random charges and the ability to measure whatever whenever you want. I really like the uncertainty factor random charges bring to the game, and the potential 16" charge of infantry doesn't bother me at all, quite the contrary. Sure, we only play 1500 points now which may make the comparison biased, the regular army size in 6th and 7th edition was 2000pts, sometimes more. But still, I am convinced that the current rules speed up the game.
Also, the focus on getting the charge has been decreased for the better. Charging is still a big advantage, but not the be-all-end-all anymore due to "Step up!" (I so love this rule!) and steadfast. I like that infantry, including non-raisable elite infantry, seems to be playable now.
Breaking of units in the first round of combat is not a regular occurrence anymore, as BSBs are better and widespread than before. Also, there is much more killing than before, again because of "Step up!". It feels infinitely better that everybody alive in the first ranks gets to swing (back) and not like in 6th, regularly packing in after getting charged by medium cavalry and losing four models. Don't get me wrong, I still do love my cavalry, but it is not the breaking machine it was, and other troop types can be a nice equalizer to cavalry.
Magic is much more balanced than I had expected. Miscasts are a real risk now. I just tend to get lucky with them, but they are a regular occurrence and they do have an effect. The nonlinear availability of power dice is an amazingly balancing factor, and the dreaded killer spells are hard enough to cast to justify their existence. The dispel scroll being now a regular item which can not be duplicated is also a very good step, and actually, I have not taken a Dispel Scroll so far in my games at all and I felt that as a disadvantage only once or twice. Channeling is something I could go without, it is just an additional roll with not much impact. But it gives the defending player something to do in the opponents phase, which may be a positive psychological factor.
We have only a limited array of armies (WoC, DoC, Empire, Skaven, Wood Elves and Vampires; a Tomb King army is in the making, and High Elves are there, but have not been played yet), but this limited sample feels relatively balanced to me. Sure, internal balance still is messed up here and there, but I would say that all of these armies have a good shot a winning against each other.
One thing that I am unsure about are monsters. Playing against Cannons of several varieties and also having them at my disposal, it feels that monsters are generally hardcountered by artillery. I remember taking monsters off the table in the first and second round before doing anything significant, and I also remember a flying monster rampaging the opponents army and winning the game almost single-handedly for me when it was not kept in check by artillery. That is one thing that feels a little bit too much like "Rock-Paper-Shotgun" to me. Other than that, I would say that the different troop types all have their merits and their sweet spots where they shine, with Monstrous Cavalry and Monstrous Beasts generally being on the higher end of efficiency, but all others still being very valid choices.
All in all, a very fine game, and I am very happy to play it!
Thanks go also to this community for the great content available here, I especially like to read the tactics and the battle reports section, and also thanks for the encouraging comments!
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Post by bierbaron on Dec 19, 2021 22:52:16 GMT
For our last game of 2021, my regular mate and I came independently to the conclusion to bring some variety and fun to the table. So we brought new units to the table which had not seen play before, here goes: Daemon Prince with Chaos armour, Daemon of Nurgle, Lore of Nurgle, Wizard Level 1, Chaos Familiar, Scaled Skin, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem, Sword of Striking [370pts] (Sorry to disappoint maybe with the fairly cookie-cutter magic items and overall setup, but my general is generally too important to me, so I am a bit risk-averse with such expensive models) Exalted Hero, MoN, BSB, Halberd, Poisonous Slime, Helm of Many Eyes, The Other Trickster's Shard [206pts] Chaos Chariot [110pts] 17x Chaos Warriors, MoN, CSM, Halberds, Banner of Swiftness [368pts] 6x Chaos Trolls with add. HW [228pts] 1x Chaos Giant with MoN [215pts] So a very small force, but each unit hard-hitting and ultra-tough, with T4 4+AS being the most vulnerable defense. No chaff, though, and stupidity in two units, but this was mitigated with a Ld9 general and a BSB, so I was feeling confident. The other army was even more extreme: Sorcerer Lord without Mark, Lvl 3, Lore of Metal, Enchanted Shield and a magic weapon 5x Chaos Warhounds 39x Chaos Warriors, MoN, CSM, Great Weapons in Horde formation 6x Dragon Ogres with Great Weapons Even more concentrated, and also almost no chaff. He rolled/chose Searing Doom, Blades of Aiban and Gilttering Robes, I rolled/chose Stream of Corruption and Curse of the Leper. I won first turn. This is the deployment from my view
Both stupidity tests were passed after the odd reroll, and I aggressively moved my army forward, offering the Daemon Prince to be charged by the Dragon Ogres, but kept my distance from the horde for now. Like so.
The magic phase gave me a whopping three dice, but I was able to cast Curse of the Leper on the horde, lowering their Toughness to further discourage them from a charge attempt, the Trolls were ca. 15" away. On his turn 1, the Dragon Ogres charged the DP and made it, just as planned. The Warhounds tried to charge the Giants flank in the hope to get lucky, but failed. His magic phase gave him 8 or 9 dice. I dispelled the Blades of Aiban on the Dragon Ogres to maintain that they had to roll sixes to even hit the DP. He cast the boosted version of Searing Doom with IF on the Nurgle Warriors, killing four, but losing all magic levels in the process due to a "10" on the Miscast Table. In the close combat phase, the DP was able to inflict four unsaved wounds, killing one Dragon Ogre, the remaining DOs whiffed most of their attacks, and the charmed shield and the 1+ AS negated any hits and wounds. So the Dragon Ogres lost by three, failed their break test and even got caught by a good pursuit roll. So my general reached the enemy lines at the end of turn 1. Now that I had magical superiority, I had time to position my troops without taking risks. In my T2, Stupidity was passed on my Warriors and luckily, the trolls also made it even without the general's Ld, but the BSB reroll was needed again. I still avoided moving closer than 15" to the horde. The Prince moved to the back of the Warrior horde. His Curse of the Leper was dispelled, but his Stream of Corruption hit 19(?) models and killed nine Warriors despite T4. Very good spell in this situation and on a caster that is so mobile. His T2, the Warhounds again charged the flank of the Giant, but the woods turned out to be wildwood, and they lost two models after completing the charge. The Horde still did not move and stayed back to avoid a combo charge. Magic was not happening anymore, and in the close combat, the Warhounds infilcted a wound on the Giant and surprisingly won combat, but the stubborn Giant did not budge. In my T3, I charged the Chariot into the Warhounds to free the Giant, and the Daemon Prince charged the rear of the Warrior Horde in an attempt to pin them in place. My other units closed in to get a combined charge next turn. I don't know if I failed a charge attempt or the stupidity test with my trolls, but they stumbled 3" forward. In magic, I got very few dice again, only two, and accomplished nothing this phase. The Chariot killed the Warhounds with impact hits alone. The combat with the warriors went better than expected and planned, the DP killed two Warriors, received one unsaved wound in return, won by one, and the Warriors broke! They fled five inches, and the Prince pursued four. So there would be a next round. He could only rally his Horde, which he did in his T3. In my T4, I successfully charged everything except the Chariot into the Warrior Horde. Also, in the magic phase I was able to improve my Chaos Warriors' Toughness to T7 with a Curse of the Leper. It was a bloody battle, the Giant rolled "Jump...", kept standing and racked up the highest body count of all my units, including Thunderstomps I inflicted well over a dozen unsaved wounds. My Exalted Hero issued a challenge, which was answered by the Chaos Sorcerer. Interestingly, my Hero was unable to harm the Sorcerer despite ASF and wounding on 2s, but at least he also did not receive any damage in return. Thanks to MoN and T7, the 19 GW attacks from the Horde (which at this point had no models left in the third rank) on my Nurgle Warriors only killed three or so models, the Trolls and the Giant also received three wounds in sum. In the end, my troops won by a landslide, the Nurgle Horde failed its Break Test and was caught by my units. This was the fastest game we have played so far. One sentence sums up Hordes for me: Power is nothing without control! The big, scary Nurgle Warrior unit was encircled and picked apart methodically after the magic war was lost for them. With no redirectors and no ranged support after the Miscast, the Warrior Horde turned from an immovable object to a juicy target in a matter of two turns. It didn't help that my opponent threw away his Warhounds without necessity, they could have delayed my advances. The investment in Magic is always a risky investment with nonlinear returns, as I have experienced myself, and IMO you simply cannot build your strategy on it. Magic is a tool to support a strategy, but no wincon by itself. In this function, it can score big, but it can also fall flat on its face. There are exceptions: VC are very reliant on their magic (Invocation) most of the time, and Skaven have relatively low casting values which helps avoiding miscasts. Life magic can prevent miscasts, too. But then, you are not harming the opponent's army with the dice you use to cast Throne of Vines, but of course, the following spells all become so much nastier after a successful "Throne". My BSB was invaluable in his function as BSB, his one round of combat was a bit disappointing, though. Without BSB, don't play Trolls or the Helm of Many Eyes! This concludes it for 2021, I hope you can take away a thing or two from my writings. Comments are always welcome.
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Post by bierbaron on Apr 2, 2022 23:36:20 GMT
We had a few games already in 2022, but I was not motivated to post the reports so far. At least at this moment I want to share again, the most interesting game so far for me was the following against Wood Elves. My army: Chaos Lord, MoT, Halberd, Poisonous Slime, Scaled Skin, Soul Feeder, Disc of Tzeentch, Helm of Many Eyes, Talisman of Preservation, The Other Trickster's Shard Chaos Sorcerer, Mark of Slaanesh, Lore of Shadow, Wizard Level 2, Barded Chaos Steed, Chaos Familiar, Charmed Shield (I rolled/took Miasma, Steed of Shadows and The enfeebling foe) Exalted Hero, BSB, MoT, Great weapon, Third Eye of Tzeentch, Daemonic Mount with Barding, Dragonhelm, Talisman of Endurance Chaos Chariot, MoS Chaos Chariot, MoS Chaos Chariot, MoS 5 Marauder Horsemen, MoS, Musician, Flails 6 Chaos Trolls, Extra hand weapon 3 Skullcrushers, Standard, Ensorcelled weapons The opposing army was totally unknown to me, the Wood Elf army consisted of: Spellweaver Lvl 4, Life, Elven Steed, unknown or irrelevant magic items, most likely ToP, Dispel Scroll and possibly an enchanted item for up to 30 pts. He rolled/took Earth Blood, Awakening, Flesh to Stone and Throne of Vines. Glade Captain, BSB, Elven Steed, HoDA 8 Glade Riders with Trueflight Arrows 8 Glade Riders with Trueflight Arrows 9 Deep Wood Scouts with Hagbane Arrows 6 Wild Riders 6 Wild Riders 3 Warhawk Riders 10 Waywatchers 1 Great Eagle This is the deployment from my view after the WE took their first turn: As you can see, we already had three woods on the table before the WEs brought their own. My otherwise extremely tough and versatile Chariots and also my Skullcrushers were at a big disadvantage from a mobility point of view. Having never played against WE before, I was surprised how small the army was, before I was informed that the bulk of the army would deploy as scouts and ambushers So with no clear center in the WE army to point my hammers at, my deployment was possibly a bit sloppy, but given the circumstances, I am still not sure what I could have done better. I decided that my army could not sit idly, being slowly shot to pieces, so I charged my units full steam ahead, which also protected my characters a bit since they were out of range or out of sight for most of the WE units. The WE ambushers arrived in the second round. The game can be summed up as a nerve-wracking Cat vs. Mouse play, with no clear indication on who is who. A very interesting and a bit taxing experience, an attempt to catch smoke and shadows and desperately trying to dispel Throne of Vines. While I tried to catch something in a clockwise movement across the board and then orienting to the right behind the big building while also desperately trying to avoid combo charges, the WE just circled clockwise themselves, staying out of charge arc and/or range all the time while peppering my units from the depths of the woods. The Skullcrushers killed the Deep Wood Scouts on the left flank in round two, but got stuck in the corner behind the rocky, i.e. difficult terrain which slowed them in a way that they were irrelevant to the game after that, which was exactly what my opponent banked on. It did not help that I lost my Sorcerer to a miscast of a quite unimportant spell in round 2. But in retrospect, this was not too crippling, the worst was the loss of the +2 to dispel, but Shadow magic would not have done much anyway in this game. The Trolls also reach the building and try to keep up with the Lord and the BSB. The mounted Marauder stalls the Glade Riders in a sacrificial move, as seen on the right side of the above picture. In Round 5, there was a charge from a unit of his Wild Riders which killed my last Chariot near the big building. The other two Chariots had been shot dead and killed by the Warhawk Riders respectively before that. This sacrifice would not be in vain, as the Wild Riders were forced to overrun and could then be countercharged by my Lord and my Trolls who were waiting on the upper left side of the building for their chance, after they had reformed behind the building. Unfortunately, the Trolls hit not as good as I expected, and the Lord only killed the Champion, but at least racked up a good amount of Overkill. The Wild Riders broke, but could rally in their next round. In my last round, the BSB and the Lord charged the Wild Riders again, I rolled really badly inflicting only one wound, even receiving one wound in return (both my characters had T5 and a 1+AS as well as a good ward save!), and the Riders held on a seven. It was sadly only after the game that I remembered that the BSB would contribute a CR for his standard, so the Riders should have been broken. Anyway, this was a very interesting experience for me, facing an army consisting completely of Fast Cavalry, Ambushers, Skirmishers and Flyers, all not affected in the slightest by the numerous woods which posed a bit of a dangerous obstacle for most of my units. An army that was almost impossible to catch and which did not want to fight, generally speaking. On the other hand, I think I sold my units dearly, as I was able to avoid combined charges, and my prize units were never in any real danger. My opponent was quite intimidated by my characters which I even "offered" to be charged by his Wild Riders at least two times, once even in the flank, but he never was confident enough to try to charge them. The Chariots were too slow to keep up with the rest of the army, so they were picked apart one after another, but a least bought my other units some much needed time and space. Picture of the Chaos Lord mooning the Wild Riders, to no effect. The lore of Fire (among others) and the Hellcannon are looking much more interesting now than before this game.
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Post by mrbaldrick on Apr 5, 2022 12:14:32 GMT
Beautiful looking armies and table. Share some army close ups 👍
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Post by bierbaron on Apr 11, 2022 15:03:33 GMT
Thank you so much, the table really is a work of art from my mate. In our last game, we actually did some close-ups for my upcoming next report, I hope you will like them!
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Post by bierbaron on Apr 12, 2022 20:17:18 GMT
Last weeks game was between my WoC and my mates DoC again, and the terrain was very fitting, resembling the northern wastes. My roster: WoC 1750 Chaos Lord, Mark of Tzeentch, Scaled Skin, Soul Feeder, Third Eye of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch, Dragonhelm, Talisman of Preservation, The Other Trickster's Shard, Great Weapon 368pts (Yes, I did it and fielded a possibly quite unfair model. He did well, as you will see) Chaos Sorcerer Lvl 2 Lore of Death, Chaos Familiar, Charmed Shield 175pts 1 Chaos Chariot, MoS 115pts 1 Chaos Chariot, MoS 115pts 19 Chaos Warriors, MoS, CSM, Shields 334pts 1 Chaos Warshrine, MoT 135pts 12 Chosen, MoT, CSM, Gleaming Pennant, Shields 299pts 1 Hellcannon 210pts The DoC fielded: Herald of Slaanesh, Obsidian Blade, Locus of Swiftness, Lvl 1 Lore of Slaanesh Herald of Tzeentch, Greater Locus of Change, Lvl 2 Lore of Metal 20 Pink Horrors, CSM, Lore of Metal 19 Daemonettes, CSM 6 Flamers of Tzeentch 6 Fiends of Slaanesh 3 Screamers Empty Table: The two armies face off: My view: A bit closer: And a closer view of the Daemons: My Sorcerer rolled Spirit Leech, Soulblight and Fate of Bjuna, his Tzeentch Herald had Searing Doom & Final Transmutation, the Horrors had Glean Magic, and the Slaanesh Herald rolled Acquiescence. My Chosen rolled Unholy Resilience, +1 Toughness. I won 1st turn, and moved forward: The red dice mark the edges of the infantry units, they were peeking over the plateau, but I could not really field them there. The Chaos Lord was not afraid to get charged by the fiends, and was also not worried in the slightest about the Daemons magic, so he confidently plced himself in the open. The Chariots protected the rear, ready to countercharge. In the magic phase, I was able to shave off a wound from the Slaanesh herald with Fate of Bjuna. I rolled well and did four wounds, but Martin also rolled three 5+. The Shrine blessed the Chaos Lord and the champion of the Chosen, granting a reroll to the Lord, an extra attack to the Chosen champion. The Hellcannon had passed its pseudo frenzy/stupidity and took a shot at the Daemonettes, veering off by 2", hitting six models and killing three. No close combats. The Daemons decided not to charge and the Fiends just moved in front of the Chaos Lord. The Screamers flew over the Lord, but did nothing. The rest of the army also moved in quite quickly to the plateau in the center, which surprised me a bit. Later Martin said, that he did not want to weather too many shots from the Hellcannon, so he rushed into close combat. In his magic phase, he got off Acquiescence on the Slaanesh warrior block, I could dispel Searing Doom, and Final Transmutation did not hit the casting threshold. The Flamers took some pot shots at the Slaanesh Warriors, killing four of them. Still no close combat. In my turn 2, my left flank charged, one Chariot rammed into the Screamers, and the Chaos Lord and the second Chariot crashed into the Fiends. The dreaming Slaanesh Warriors shuffled only two inches forward, and the Tzeentch Chosen protected the left flank. The magic phase was uneventful, Spirit Leech was successfully cast, but did no wounds. The Hellcannon missed completely as the shot scattered 6". In close combat, the Screamers were easily wiped out, i.e. poofed after the instability test. The Slaanesh Fiends did not fare much better, the impact hits killed one fiend with the help of the ToTS from the General (my favourite item hands down, no contest!), on their swingback they only inflicted one wound on the Chariot and none on the Lord. My regular attacks killed another two Fiends, and after a high instability roll, the Fiends disappeared into the warp. My general reformed and faced the center plateau. In their turn 2, the Daemon blocks charged my Warrior blocks on the plateau: The Flamers moved towards the Hellcannon, forgetting that it is a monster first and foremost, and tried to shoot its face. The magic phase was uneventful, Acquiescence on the Chaos Lord was dispelled, Glean Magic was successful, but did nothing to my Sorcerer. The Hellcannon shrugged off the flamers' puny shots, even though it was quite a high number of hits. In close combat, the Tzeentch Horrors had only S2 and were unable to inflict a wound on the Chosen, who in turn killed quite a number of Horrors. The Champions had a challenge, which the Warrior Champ won, he got another attack as a bonus from EotG. The Horrors lost combat even though they charged, and a few of them retreated to the warp. The Deamonettes did better, the Herald won his challenge handily, and through sheer number of attacks + rerolls to hit, five or six casualties were inflicted on the Warriors. The latter fought back well, and were able to draw the combat in the end. My turn three saw two charges, the Chaos Lord charged into the flank of the Horrors, and the Hellcannon decided to get some taste of the Flamers. Magic was a dud again, Soulblight was dispelled, other spells were not possible, but the Shrine gave another attack to the Chosen Champion. The Chaos Lord again only got a reroll. Shooting was not an issue anymore, and oh Boy, the Chaos Lord and the Chosen just wiped the Horrors out, allowing the Chaos Lord to overrun into the Daemonettes. From his challenge, he got +1 Toughness, finally something useful. There, for the first time in this battle, the Chaos Lord whiffed and was unable to kill the Slaanesh Herald in the challenge. But he got out of this unscathed, too, and as the smoke settled, only the Herald remained. The Hellcannon ate some Flamers, but secured only one Thunderstomp hit, the Flamers held firm. In the last round of combat, the Chaos Lord finished the Slaanesh Herald, and also the Hellcannon devoured all remaining Flamers. I will wrap it up for now, but will add some post-game thoughts in the next few days.
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Post by grandmasterwang on Apr 14, 2022 12:33:19 GMT
Enjoyed these well written reports a lot. Great pictures as well.
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Post by bierbaron on Apr 14, 2022 20:59:13 GMT
Thank you very much for your kind feedback, it is much appreciated. We have had consistent fun for quite some time now, and have regularly met and still continue to do so. I will pack my WoC in for the next few games, but first some observations about individual unit performance over the last games:
The WoC in 8th edition have a vast selection of very powerful and colorful Heroes and units. The Tzeentch Lord is an incredibly stable investment, he never disappointed in any game, and the Disc of Tzeentch gives him the edge that I was looking for when I first tried him out. The ability to fly and therefore pinpoint the destructive power of the Chaos Lord exactly where and when I need it, and also not being too worried about having the Lord shot dead or killed by magic is one of the strongest aspects I have found during these last games. The Daemon Prince has a similar performance, and maybe even greater potential as he can be a caster, but obviously needs more points for this. The Chimera though, I've read soo many good, great even, things about it, and in my reality, it just died to the first cannonballs it could catch in both games I fielded it. Admittedly, the cannonballs were flaming, but the Chimera did nothing worthwhile so far for me. The Hellcannon is interesting, though. Even more than its actual ability, it seems my opponent was worried about the potential of the Hellcannon, and made some premature charges which played into my favour in the end. I will keep that in mind. And that thing seems to be extremely resilient with the Monster & Handlers rule. Chosen, they ruled in the last game, but they had lowly Horrors as opposition, and regular warriors would have most likely done the same, as 18 warriors cost about the same as 12 Chosen, and are core. The Warshrine is a gimmick unit if I have ever seen one. Not crappy, though, it just feels a bit like a "win more" unit, which does good things when you are winning anyway. Not a musthave, I feel. You may have seen that as the games progressed, I have fielded less and less warhounds. In 6th edition, you could use them as LoS blockers as well as redirectors, but you cant block LoS anymore in 8th, and the Pursue/Overrun trap is hard to setup, and potentially hinders you as much as the enemy. Especially, when the opposing army has superior firepower and therefore no need to take the first bait it gets offered. Similarly, the use of Marauder Horsemen was mostly a sacrificial one, as their shooting potential is very limited and short ranged, and they are quite useless in combat, especially against blocks, or after the first arrow volley or magic missile, which again, you can't really protect against. When only one or two models are left alive, they even struggle to win against weak warmachine crews as seen in some of my games. They are reliable when Slaanesh marked, but IMO not a must take. I am very happy that regular Chaos Warriors are a very stable and reliable core unit that can anchor a center, and they have good enough killing potential even with the defensive setup of a shield. Bloodcrushers are a bit overstacked, I feel, but it seems that most armies have one or two units in this category. They are extremely efficient killing machines and have only few counters and exploitable weaknesses. Borderline OP, I have to admit. The Chaos Giant needs a few more test runs, he seems stable though. Fortunately for him, I did not face Lizardmen so far. Chaos Trolls have incredible combat potential, but need many resources to be kept in line due to stupidity. I have not tried the other big infantry guys, maybe I should give Chaos Ogres a whirl, but on paper, they don't offer much that Chaos Warriors leave missing. There are still interesting options, but I will give my VC and especially my Empire soldiers a spotlight in the next games. Cheers!
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Post by bierbaron on Aug 24, 2022 21:51:21 GMT
It was quite a while ago since I posted my last report, but we have continued to play and I will update you again of our exploits, starting today. Maybe the next bulletins will be a bit shorter as we have accumulated quite a number of battles with corresponding pictures, but it is very likely that my memory will be not 100% accurate after my hiatus here. As promised, I switched armies and fielded my Empire again with a "Knights of the holy cannonball"-themed list. We played with 1750 points again. General: Grand Master, Shield, Runefang, ToTS 259pts Battle Wizard, Lvl 2, Lore of Life, Warhorse 116pts He rolled Earth Blood and Flesh to Stone Captain, BSB, Plate, Lance, Shield, Dawnstone, barded Warhorse 141pts Master Engineer 65pts 5 Knightly Orders, Lance & Shield, FC 140pts 12 Knightly Orders Inner Circle, Lance & Shield, FC, Standard of Discipline 345pts 3 Demigryph Knights, Lance, Standard 194pts Great Cannon 120pts Helblaster Volley Gun 120pts Steam Tank 250pts My army faced a Nurgle-themed Daemon army which I estimated to be quite tough. It consisted of Nurgle Daemon Prince with flying, Chaos Armour, The Eternal Blade, ASF, Lore of Nurgle Lvl 2. He had the signature spell and Miasma of Pestilence IIRC Herald BSB, Nurgle, Greater Locus of Regeneration Epidemius 19 Plaguebearers with FC 16 Plaguebearer with FC 3 Beasts of Nurgle 4 Nurgling Bases, placed as scouts. This was the deployment: On the upper half, there are obviously the Daemons with the DP, PBs with BSB, PBs with Epidemius, Beasts on the hill to the right and the Nurglings in front of the army as scouts. The Steam Tank had to deploy in difficult terrain, but since I did not expect it to charge on the first turn, this hazard should not come into play effectively. Since I had the upper hand regarding ranged attacks, I deployed my artillery a bit in the back. The rightmost unit of Daemonettes on my side are Proxies for my unit of 5 regular knights, I forgot to bring my models Thanks to Martin for offering me his models and accepting the proxy. The Empire won the first turn. I ignored the Nurgling bases and advanced the Demigryph knights and the Steam Tank in the middle of the field. The IC knights advanced cautiously to avoid a charge from the Nurgle DP. The knights on the right flank also advanced, but only a few inches. The magic phase was somewhat successful, I managed to put Earth Blood on the IC knights. The spell was almost consistently active on the unit, which helped quite a bit. In the shooting phase, the Great cannon and the Steam cannon both hit Epidemius, who did not get a "Look out, Sir", and left him with only one wound, almost killing him. This should prove quite important later on. The HBVG aimed at the Nurglings, but did not do much damage. The position after my first turn. The Daemons advanced, the Nurglings failed their charge attempt at the HBVG. The DP kept out of the charge arc of my IC knights, but was close enough to them for a promising charge next turn. It would be hard to get out of the charge arc. His PB units advanced also quite eagerly as well as the Beasts of Nurgle. The DoC magic phase was not very exciting, the signature spell had no target in range and Miasma on the BSB unit had no immediate effect. In my second turn, I could successfully complete a long charge with the IC knights into his BSB block and my Demigryphs could charge Epidemius' unit. The Steam Tank generated four steam points and moved double digit inches towards the Daemon general in the hope to seriously damage or even kill him with the Steam Gun. The regular knights on the right flank faced the Beasts of Nurgle, and moved back 3,5 inches in an attempt to stall the BoN for an additional turn. In the magic phase, Earth Blood was cast on the IC knights. My Great Cannon misfired without further consequences, the HBVG shot again at the Nurglings, but even at close range could only kill one base. The Steam Tank hit and wounded the DP, but only took one wound from the tough otherworldly beast. The close combats were not as devastating as I hoped, both the IC knights as well as the Demigryph knights did not inflict many hits and even less wounds. My Grand Master took only one wound from the Nurgle Herald and even received one in return. The Demigryphs caused only one wound in total, as I directed the attacks of two knights on Epidemius in an attempt to get rid of him. Unfortunately, only the PB unit lost a regular model. Both Empire units got stuck now. The IC knights won combat, but the PBs held easily, and the Demigryphs lost, but fortunately held. In the DoC turn two, the Nurgle General successfully charged the Steam Tank, and the Beasts of Nurgle failed a charge attempt on the regular knights. In the magic phase, I could dispel the attempt of a Miasma on the PBs with the BSB. On to close combat, the DP whipped out his Eternal Blade, rolled a "6" and went to town. He inflicted the maximum of eight wounds on the Tank, which could do nothing in return. Being unbreakable, it held, though. In this phase, I could kill both the BSB and Epidemius! The ICs won combat, but the PBs only lost a few extra models, and the Demigryphs lost again, broke this time and fled very quickly to the opposite side of the field. The DP charges! Two wounds left, but four steam points in the tank! The Demigryphs almost flee the field! In my next turn, my Knights successfully charge the Beasts of Nurgle, and the Demigryphs can rally. Whew, that was close. The Steam Tank generates 4 steam points in a last ditch effort, and rolls seven hits for Grinding, five wounds, and the DP rolls only two successful Ward saves! Amazing, how these things can turn out. In the magic phase, I can again cast Earth Blood, healing the wound on the Grand Master in the process. Shooting does not much, the HBVG somehow completely whiffs in an attempt to kill some Plaguebearers. In cc, the IC knights and the Grand Master finally kill a sizeable score of Plaguebearers with the regeneration on the BSB reroll gone, sending them back to the warp. The knights orient themselves to the center of the board. The regular knights do nothing to the BoN, and get killed in the next turn after taking wounds and a failed break test. I will only post the remaining pictures now, as in the end only the Beasts of Nurgle of the DoC army remain on the battlefield at the end of the game. A unit of Horrors is summoned with a "12" on the Reign of Chaos chart in turn four or five, but they can only stall a bit after the loss of the PB combat blocks, General and BSB of the DoC army. Here goes with some impressions of the later turns: The victorious IC knights and the heavily damaged Steam Tank return! An additional unit of Deamons appears! The commander of the Steam Tank is unfazed, certainly expecting a promotion or two ;-) After eating the Empire knights, the Beasts of Nurgle join battle with the Demigryphs, resulting in one of the cosiest pillow-fights ever seen.
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Post by grandmasterwang on Oct 14, 2022 14:02:00 GMT
Great report and pictures and it seems thos Stormcast lizard models make decent demigryph substitutes.
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Post by bierbaron on Oct 15, 2022 11:02:24 GMT
Thank you! The original Demigryphs are so hard to come by now, so I resorted to proxying. My mates don't mind.
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Post by bierbaron on Oct 15, 2022 15:08:23 GMT
Another battle of the forces of the warp facing the forces of the inevitable end. It is also a bit older game, I am behind schedule with my reports. We played 1750 points, and I fielded: Strigoi Ghoul King, Beguile, Red Fury, Book of Arkhan, Dragonbane Gem, Ogre Blade, The Other Trickster's Shard [410pts] Necromancer, Lvl 2 [100pts] Vampire, Lvl 2, Nightshroud, Heavy Armour, Shield [186pts] 29x Crypt Ghouls, Champion [300pts] 6x Dire Wolf [48pts] 6x Dire Wolf [48pts] 20x Zombies, Musician, Standard 6x Crypt Horrors [228pts] 30x Grave Guard, CSM [360pts] This was roughly it, I can't find the armylist anymore, but this seems to be about right. The Daemons placed Daemon Prince of Khorne, Sword of Might 14 Plaguebearers with CSM and Herald 11 Pink Horors 9 Seekers of Slaanesh with Herald and ASF 3 Beasts of Nurgle 1 Skullcannon The struggle took place in an abandoned city of the empire, this was the deployment: Left flank, with the Dire Wolves vanguarding Right flank, Ghouls with Vampires, Zombies with Necro and Grave Guard facing Horrors, Plaguebearers and Seekers The Seekers also made their Vanguard move, and you see the Crypt Horrors placement here. The DoC won first turn, and the Seekers sneakily circled around the rightmost flank, making full use of their Fast Cavalry rule. Other than that, the DoC moved forwards with half speed, the Skull Cannon killed two Crypt Ghouls with its flaming shot. Magic did nothing noteworthy. I felt very threatened by the flanking Seekers and made a Desperado move, as it is called in chess. I moved the Grave Guard forward, but they stayed in range of the Vampires and the Necromancer. Then, the characters all joined the Grave Guard, which was then propelled even further forward with a Vanhels. I felt quite proud of myself after this move, but this was probably the peak quality of my decision making in this game The Zombies' numbers were more than doubled after a few successful Invocations. It looked not too bad from here. Other than that, my whole army moved forward to meet the DoC: This was the situation in turn 2 DoC: the Plaguebearers had charged the GG, the Seekers had completed their encirclement move behind my lines, and the Dire Wolves had been thrown away already in some suboptimal sacrficial moves to stall the Beasts and the rest of the left flank of the DoC. My general and the Grave Guard were very successful and wiped the Plaguebearers out in two combat rounds, so they could reposition to face the rest of the DoC army in the front again. My gamble had paid off so far. The Beasts of Nurgle got charged by the Crypt Ghouls: The Grave Guard moved back into the center again, but could not charge the Seekers, they were too far away. My Zombies also reformed to meet the Seekers head-on. The latter charged into the front of the Zombies in the following DoC turn: The DP positioned himself patiently into the flank of the Grave Guard. My Crypt Horrors got whittled away by the Beasts of Nurgle, and were too far away to even hope to get raised again, as all my casters were on the other side of the field. The Seekers killed many Zombies due to ASF rerolls, and lost three models themselves, 15 Zombies remained after CR. In my turn, I failed the crucial charge of the Grave Guard into the flank of the Seekers, which was not really likely to succeed, but it was possible and it had the potential to save the game for me. Alas, it was not to happen. So the best thing I could do was to raise as many Zombies as possible, and I moved the Grave Guard via Vanhels very close to the Seekers. The last Crypt Horror died on the other side of the field due to too much poison. My Crypt Ghouls had shooed away the Tzeentch Horrors in the center (offscreen), and were bound to become the next speedbump for the Beasts of Nurgle. The Daemon Prince charged the flank of the Grave Guard alone, putting me into the dilemma of deciding which model should challenge him. I made a gamble and moved both Vampires into contact, and challenged with my Strigoi. Maybe I could kill the DP, four wounds are not out of reach, with the DP striking last because of the Nightshroud and Hatred + Red Fury. Not the most likely outcome, but one could hope. But alas, even with rerolls to hit on 4+, wounding on 2+, negating his armour save and forcing the DP to reroll his succesful wardsaves, my Strigoi miserably failed to put more than one wound on his foe. With Beguile, the DP also only put one wound on my general with his regular attacks, but it was not to be: all my hopes were shattered by the thunderstomp which pounded the Strigoi Lord into the dust. The Zombies also disappeared from the Seekers' many attacks and the following CR. The crumble roll for the fallen General was not too bad for me, but the game was lost from this point on. Also, the Beasts of Nurgle crashed into the Crypt Ghouls and wiped them out after two or three rounds of combat. The Daemon Prince progressively killed the GG champion, the Nightshroud Vampire and almost all Grave Guard, but in my last round, the Grave Guard Standard Bearer and the Necromancer were still standing, preventing a total wipeout. Victorious, and bellowing their cries of victory, the Deamons left the field, not noticing the Necromancer who was already working on some unholy rituals to resurrect his fallen masters.... Well, this was a tough nut to crack, and the first time that my Strigoi faced such a mighty opponent in CC. With a combined charge of the Seekers + the DP, this would not have mattered much, but the DP charged alone, and there was no unit to "blend" for my General. So I took a risk and got badly punished for it. I should have been more cautious, maybe feed the GG champion to the Prince, raise him again and maybe even win by CR. Not too exciting, but I would have kept my general this way. On a wider scope, my whole army was scattered on the field and got picked apart piece by piece. This is not the way VC should be played, and this was the game to show me this. Anyway, my opponent played a good game and got a deserved win, and I got some things to think about. Thank you for reading.
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Post by grandmasterwang on Oct 25, 2022 14:10:10 GMT
Cool report and very unlucky with the Daemon Prince.
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