The Last Alamo

So, aside from this upcoming Paca, this is going to be the last WHFB GT that will likely exist, with everyone either jumping to Kings of War (where I will be) or otherwise scattering.  I had not played these guys since their book came out at a GT for a variety of hipster reasons, but I decided ending the game with them was a fine way to finish.  So, Ogres it is.  Always fun, even in a loss.

 

My List-

Slaughtermaster, L4 Heavens, Talisman of Protection, Dispel Scroll, Sword of Antiheros

Butcher L1 Maw, Great Weapon, Frog Scroll

Bruiser, BSB, Great Weapon, Armor of Destiny

Hunter, Harpoon, Warrior Bane, Beast Hunter Big Name

 

8 Bulls, Full Command

8 Iron Guts, Full Command

 

7 Maneaters, Full Command, Brace of Pistols, Dragonhide Banner, Stubborn, Poison

1 Sabertusk

 

1 Ironblaster

1 Thundertusk

 

So, Somewhat shooty and built around the maneaters breating a vast zone of nope in the middle of the table.  Not as over the top as it could be (Frog instead of Hellheart), but some serious play in all phases.  I also managed to make it a Highlander style army (only one of any given thing) completely on accident.  The idea is to apply some ranged pressure and then let the Maneaters do what they do when the opponent decides he has had enough and exposes himself.

 

This is actually a list I considered for Masters last year (backed out on it to be cute and play Bretts) and has been in the back of my mind for several tournaments.  While not as powerful as my old double firebelly and tyrant build, it has a lot of versatility and much stronger ranged threat.  The Hunter is a comp friendly replacement for the second Ironblaster I would have otherwise taken, but he also comes with a lot of utility.  Several small adjustments have been made to account for possible ethereal spam (vamps are popular in Texas) and heavens lets me tweak the odds without having to six dice things (my favorite lore in the game).   The central meat of the list is (as always) the Maneaters, supported by the Snow Blower (Thundertusk) and Heavens Magic.

 

 I did comp fairly high for this (one of the higher comps) so the judges evidently liked the lack of spammed choices, Mournfang, second Ironblaster, and Hellheart.  We will see how it plays out, but its worth pointing out that in fourteen tries, this is the only army that I have ever beaten my wife's great wall of nurgle with, so I have high hopes.

 

Some pictures: (My wife painted the giant for me for the special scenario, though I did the conversion and the sprite he summons.  The rest is all my poor painting.)

 

 

Event Review- Paul's Carnival of Chaos

This is the first year of this event in New Orleans at the Airport Hilton.  It began as a one day event making fun of noted introvert and terrible Warhammer player Paul, but has now become a major GT in its own right.

The Basics-
Years Active: 1 (I have attended one year)
Format:  5 games, 2500 points, Limited End Times Rules
Comp System:  None, but bad game votes can be given for abusive comp
Sports System:  Best Game Vote and Bad Game Vote options
Painting System:  Checklist system, some oddities
Battle System:  20-nil

Venue-
The New Orleans Airport Hilton is a pretty solid hotel and the room is located in the central hall.  There is ample space and the room itself is locked over night, letting you leave your army there.  New Orleans itself is interesting to see, but its a matter of personal preference on whether or not you will enjoy sight seeing there.  Its kind of dirty and smelly, but the seafood is excellent and there are a number of historic places to check out.

Tables-
Pretty much your typical GT standard terrain, though LOS pieces were a bit lacking.  The influence of the Masters can be seen here with the preset charts for placing terrain on the tables.

Swag-
None.  Awards were these awesome rooster trophies with random GW product tossed in.

Scenarios-
Some good ideas here with 800 bonus points tied into using banner bearing core units.  Where it fell apart was in allowing dwarf armies to use copters, scouts, and ambushers to score with.  Combined with the sparse LOS blocking terrain, this event was a dwarf players dream in many ways.  Basically, a dwarf player could run their gunline army to castle in a corner and then use their copters to poach objectives at the end.  The Scenarios conceptually were a great idea to keep end times stuff in check, but the execution basically put Dwarves in the driver seat this entire tournament.

Crowd-
Some serious reservations here.  Paul was hilarious and awesome to hang out with.  The Texans were top notch guys to play and party with.  The Bijou Rats were great people.  But, there were some seriously bad sports and known cheaters in the room that soured the event in a lot of ways.  The lack of comp of any kind combined with the scenario design led to some very ugly lists and playstyles being used, particularly with Dwarves.  There was also some serious issues with one guy the organizers knew was going to be a problem ahead of time, but did not pre-emptively address.  Those sorts of things keep guys who fly from returning.

Boozing-
The hotel bar was within walking distance of the event room, but aside from that it was BYOB.  New Orleans itself had many places to check out for booze, including breweries and the like.

Competition-
The Texans are all amazing players and aside from a newer guy in round one, all my games were against solid competition.  The lack of comp makes he room even tougher and the South Region does love them some gunline, so if you want a tough game you came to the right place.
Judging-
I normally don't discuss this because it generally is always done very well at these events, leaving only minor things that can sound like sour grapes when you bring them up.  But.... this event had some problems in a couple areas.  First, if you have read my GT recap, you will know that there was a known cheater who falsified his army.  The issue here is the TOs knew this guy had done this (and other things) in the past and often, but made little to no effort to monitor his behavior.  Second, pairings were very strange.  Twice I played people who were no where near me in Battle and this did not occur in the first two rounds.  There were a lot of people who were experiencing the same thing with no real explanation of why.  Third, the paint judging was very hit and miss.  I made a point of inspecting the other Wood Elf armies out there.  As can be seen here, my army is pretty solidly painted and has numerous conversions, yet another wood elf army that had simple three color base coating and incomplete basing scored higher than mine did, while another virtually identical looking army scored significantly lower than mine.  Last, and most serious in my mind, Bad Game votes were overturned by the organizers with no discussion with the voting parties.  In my case, I bad game voted a dwarf player based on the comp criteria in the packet (nice guy, asshole army list) and it was overturned without any discussion with me about it.  He gave me a bad game vote (not sure why, my first ever that I can recall in five years) and it stood.  All that put together left a really negative taste in my mouth and I was not alone in my experiences.  The fact that no one was allowed to see a score sheet or painting score sheet at the end of the event was a pretty big red flag for me.  Its a shame, because this event has potential, but the desire to make this kind of a trip just gets squashed when things like this happen.

Overall-
The games were mostly fun and hanging with the Texans is always a treat, but the inconsistent pairings and judging pretty much sunk this one for me.  If you want to see New Orleans and see the mythical legend that is Paul, it is worth a look and the wife and I do not regret going on that basis.  But we will not be returning to this event.  I knew being a TO is tough from personal experience and the crew running this one are good guys, but nothing kills an event faster than scoring issues.  Its the one thing that you have to be transparent and accurate with at all times.  Every other problem is forgivable and correctable, but when scoring and pairing seem fishy (even if they are not) it can kill an event outright.

Event Review- Broadside Bash

The Bash is the third oldest event in SoCal, behind SAWS and QCR, with a fairly long history behind it.  It is run by Bama these days, but the former Pacific Marauders guys who founded it are still involved in the running of the event.

The Basics-
Years Active: 8 (I have attended five)
Format:  5 games, 2500 points, standard limitations and no special characters
Comp System:  Swedish modified
Sports System:  5 point player rated system
Painting System:  Tiered Checklist with two judges with a cap for overall
Battle System:  W/L/D with bonus points

Venue-
Broadside has moved around over the years, but the last three it has been at Kingdom Con in San Diego, at the Crown Plaza Suite.  This is a weekend gaming convention that also started three years ago, with lots of cool vendors and an ok sushi bar.  The room is a large hall, typical of these convention events, with other tournaments also going on in the same room.  The major bummer here is that you pretty much have to cart your army back and forth to the room each night, unlike many GTs.

Tables-
Solid quality with a fair amount of terrain, the tables are basically good solid GT standard tables, though they did borrow Fred's mats this past year.  There is a bit of a lack of LOS blocking terrain on the tables, but there are a decent amount of other pieces at each one.

Swag-
There is no included swag, but they do sell T-shirts fairly cheap for the event.

Scenarios-
A bit wonky, but that's normal with any first time TO.  Plus, the Broadside has always been known for doing odd things with the scenarios.  If you don't mind wackiness, they are a lot of fun.

Crowd-
This is somewhat of a mixed bag, but mostly a nice bunch.  This is sort of the cool down event from WCGT where the LA clubs all come and play, but it has also been known for being a bit more filthy over the years.  Bama more or less cracked down on the rough lists a bit and the sportsmanship has been mostly superb of late as well.  The event is somewhat smaller than others, typically drawing in 30ish, but it is still big enough to get a diverse lineup of games.

Boozing-
Its pretty much BYOB here, though you can go to the bar between rounds for pricey cocktails and snacks.  Roll in a cooler with your favorite poison and you are good to go.

Competition-
There are two big clubs (Capri and Chupacabras) that attend this in force, plus a few smaller ones that turn up.  Pretty much all of the best painters and players in the LA and San Diego area turn up here, so there are some good tough games to be had.

Overall-
This is and always has been a good solid local event.  Its not one I would suggest as part of an out of state trip (see QCR or WCGT for that), unless your family wants to check out Sea World.

Event Review- West Coast GT

The West Coast GT was started by Fred Whitney and Bill Curry, who run the West Coast Hammertime Podcast.  It is fairly reflective of both the general SoCal Warhammer scene and somewhat influenced by their interest in the US Masters.  The event has grown to be the second largest Warhammer event in the entire state, drawing over 80 participants last year.

 The Basics-
Years Active: 3 (I have attended them all)
Format:  5 games, 2500 points, standard limitations and no special characters
Comp System:  Swedish modified
Sports System:  basic thumbs up or down system
Painting System:  Checklist with two judges
Battle System:  20-nil

Venue-

The Elks Club of Mission Viejo has hosted this event all three years.  They are amazing hosts and provide access to their club bar and plenty of cheap food over the course of the weekend.  There is also a Friday Night Karaoke thing at their club that everyone participates in during the setup.  As venues go, this one is tied with Waughpaca for the best in the country, save for the lack of a close hotel but with superior drinking options.

 Tables-

In the past Fred used my old leagues tables, but he has since switched to the Front Line gaming mats which are far superior.  The terrain is mostly from our old events and is very sturdy, ample, well maintained, and generally top notch.  Aside from removing the setup space, this event has the best and most balanced terrain of any event in the nation.  Fred and Bill have done a great job of keeping it that way.  Honestly, no other event comes close to the quality in this department.

Swag-

This has varied from year to year, but there has always been a little something to take home.  Last year, it was custom Mickey Mouse blast templates.

Scenarios-

Somewhat wonky and overly complex, the scenarios are at least interesting.  Their scenario design guy has been refining them from year to year.  They basically remain constant and some of them involve using special models in your units, for which they have conversion contests.

Crowd-

This event has one of the best and most diverse crowds of any GT, easily on par with both QCR and Waughpaca.  There is a wide mix of armies, builds, player types, and playstyles present in this event.  Arguably, this is the main draw for this event, as the other major club in SoCal (Leadership2) actually plays in this event (a lot are busy running QCR) as do a good chunk of the Texans.  The room is honestly even more diverse than Paca.  It is much more competitive in tone than Paca, however.

Boozing-

If the crowd were not a good enough reason to go, this would be the clincher.  The Elks let people open tabs and serve people all weekend.  The booze is inexpensive for California and they do not wimp out on the strength of the cocktails.  If you are somehow still standing after a full game of drinking like a fish, there is a beer party at a nearby bowling alley every Saturday.  Really, only Alamo and Paca edge this one out and even then only by the barest of margins.

Competition-

The three largest and most successful clubs in California play here, including the mighty Leadership 2 and Club Capri.  Several other respected clubs come up for this event from San Diego and Texas, making this arguably one of the most skilled rooms in the entire Western Timezone.  The players are all generally fair and fun, as well.  It does not get up to the whole Serious Business level that the Masters does, but in my experience this is the event with the toughest path to victory in the west, but that's mainly because a couple key people from LD2 do not play in their own event.

Overall-
In three years, I have had some of the best experiences of any GT at this event and it keeps getting better every year.  It is the equal of Paca in a lot of ways, but I am biased a little since its the one GT where I get to sleep in my own bed at home every year.  While it is not the best in any category (other than terrain), it is excellent in every area.  This is really, along with Paca, one of the best well rounded fun GT experiences that anyone can have.  If you want to try an event on the West Coast, this is the one to attend.

Event Review- Masters

I have some mixed opinions on the entire Masters event and system, but that's an entirely different topic.  This is mostly dealing with the event itself.  A lot of this is going to be repeats from Grail Quest, since it is a lot of the same crowd and the exact same venue, but there are some differences.

The Basics-
Years Active: 2 (I have attended one year)
Format:  6 games, 2500 points, standard limitations and no special characters
Comp System:  Swedish
Sports System:  Best Game Votes only, but not for top award
Painting System:  Tiered Checklist with two judges, but not for top award.
Battle System:  20-nil

Venue-
This event takes place at Atomic Empire in Raleigh North Carolina.  The rows are crowded and it shares space with other events going on in the store.  The game store is an excellent place to buy stuff and has a beer only bar inside.

 Tables-
They are packed tight with somewhat sparse terrain.  The LOS blocking pieces are small and all of the terrain is in so-so condition.  The tables themselves are modular pieces, but serviceable.  It is basically a standard game store table experience.

Swag-
 T-Shirts and some Meirce Source Books.  Awards are nice trophies and some random GW kits.

Scenarios-
There are bonus points each round, determined by selecting a card from your hand secretly.  You can use each card once and only on day one.  I liked the concept, but it needs a little more fine tuning.

Crowd-
These are the top dogs of each region of the country and they reflect the general preference of that region and its selection criteria.  Mostly, its a room full of best general winners with a few hobby guys tossed in.  While cases of outright open rudeness are rare, they do occur and the level of the competition tends to make the entire event very tense.

Boozing-
Yeah, outside of some cheap beer at the in store bar, not much of that.  You can open a tab and have some local brews, but that's about it due to local laws.

Competition-
The best generals in the nation are here playing no frills 20nil battle lines for six games in a row.  The playstyle and crowd reflect that and the fierce competition over the team title means everyone is playing heavy point denial and evasion.  It is quite simply, the roughest room you will play in.

Overall-
My personal issues with the format and tone aside, this is a very well run and efficient event.  While I have no interest in going again, even when it relocates to Vegas next year, I recommend anyone who is capable of qualifying to give it a go at least once.  Its worth it just to network with all the really good players who attend.

Event Review- Grail Quest

The Basics-
Years Active: Unknown (I have attended one year)
Format:  6 games, 2500 points, up to 500 can be monsters
Comp System:  Swedish
Sports System:  Best Game Votes only
Painting System:  Tiered Checklist with two judges
Battle System:  20-nil with bonus points

Venue-
This event takes place at Atomic Empire in Raleigh North Carolina.  The rows are crowded and it shares space with other events going on in the store.  The game store is an excellent place to buy stuff and has a beer only bar inside.

 Tables-
 They are packed tight with somewhat sparse terrain.  The LOS blocking pieces are small and all of the terrain is in so-so condition.  The tables themselves are modular pieces, but serviceable.  It is basically a standard game store table experience.

Swag-
 None.  Awards are nice trophies and some random GW kits.

Scenarios-
There are bonus points each round, but no scenarios as such.  Like most East Coast events, the focus is on efficiency with the Battle Lines scenario.  The upside is that the 500 point monster allowance adds a few fun new wrinkles to the mix. 

Crowd-
The crowd varies.  Most of the mid-Atlantic guys are fun to play and good to chat with, Eoin Whelan, Eric Lodal, and Jerry Parsley being major standouts.  But there are also some very competitive alpha nerds that are a part of the scene.  There are no side activities to engage in at this event and even if there were the exhausting six game schedule would discourage going to them.

Boozing-
Yeah, outside of some cheap beer at the in store bar, not much of that.  You can open a tab and have some local brews, but that's about it due to local laws.

Competition-
A lot of strong players come to this, in particular enthusiasts of European styles of the game.  While not my personal cup of tea, the strongest people in the country at this style of play can be found here.

Overall-
 If you like this style of Warhammer, this is a good event and a friendly one.  The scoring is fair and efficient.  The TO is very attentive and impartial.  It is also decent sized.  If you want to sample something in the eastern time zone, this is a good one to check out.

Event Review- Waughpaca

Waaughpaca is a long running GT held in the dead of winter in Wisconsin every year, roughly 30 miles from where I grew up as a kid.

The Basics-
Years Active: 6 years (I have attended the last three)
Format:  5 games, 2000 points, generally standard style
Comp System:  None (see below)
Sports System:  None (see below)
Painting System:  Checklist with three judges conferring
Battle System:  Win/Loss/Draw with Bonus Points

Venue-
This event is held at the Waupaca Ale House.  You are isolated out in the north woods in the middle of winter, but that is ok.  The venue is a giant wedding reception hall with an attached bar and supper club, where you can get great meals between rounds and open up a tab for really cheap booze.  The hotel is very nice and affordable and sits a mere 30 foot walk from the bar entrance.  This venue is, for my money, tied with WCGT for the best in the nation for Fantasy GTs.

Tables-
These are a bit more hit and miss, with a variety of custom tables which some people may not like due to excessive amounts of terrain types on some tables.  There decent setup room on the tables and the terrain is all of good quality.  Terrain charts at each table tell you exactly what every piece does, which is a nice amenity.

Swag-
This has varied from year to year, but the one constant is the reroll dice.  The glasses and T-Shirts from prior years are missed, but hopefully they are back next year.  The trophies are custom made warhammer equipment and weapons, which puts them above everyone else.

Scenarios-
The scenarios are fairly odd, but well mixed.  In three years going, they have not seemed to favor any particular army type, aside from punishing people who min/max.  They also handled End Times better than any event I have seen tackle it.  This event is tied with QCR for the best around, in this department.  There is enough variety to make people behave with army selection, but simple enough that you can be drunk as hell and still know what you are doing.

Crowd-
This is the best crowd to play with in all of the nation that I have ever been.  Despite the lack of soft scores of any kind, nearly everyone runs completely reasonable and tame armies, even in the year End Times was allowed.  In three years I have never had a negative gaming experience here.  There are Mustache Contests, Strength Contest, Raffles, and rampant drunken revelry.  This is everything a GT should be.

Boozing-
You can open a tab at the bar and get cheap booze all weekend.  The wait staff are excellent and friendly and you can take your drinks and snacks right into the hall, if you want.  This one is tied with Alamo for boozing and second only to WCGT.

Competition-
A lot of the best Bay Area guys are regulars here and the best of the Midwest hang out here.  The skill level of the room runs the full range with a fairly even distribution.  If you are looking for a challenging game, you will eventually get your turn with Ryan Nichol or Mike G, if not one of the top dog L2 crowd.  Even though the tone of the event is not super competitive, there are good hard games to be had.

Overall-
This is obviously my favorite event of the entire year and I am not alone in this view, though some of that is personal since this is also a trip back home for me.  If you like good compy events with a lot of fun sideshow antics and a great crowd, this one is the one to go to.  It sells out its 100 man capacity in under a day each year for good reason.  If you like QCR or WCGT, this one is probably right up your alley.  If you are a serious business kind of guy, its still worth it for the chance to square off against the toughest players in the Midwest.

Reflecting on CoC

After a couple weeks to decompress and barely escape the Texas flooding, I figured I would update this with my general thoughts about Paul's CoC.  Most of what I have to say about this event has more to do with the event itself, rather than my personal experiences in the games.  As such I think I am going to do a series of posts talking about individual events I have attended over the last couple years and their various pros and cons.  This post will instead talk about my personal experiences in the games at the event.  It is sufficive to say that several things are going to relate to the quirks of this event and some of the brief battle recaps are going to talk about some things that are really event related.  This is somewhat unavoidable.  Most of it will be confined to the game three discussion.

Our Friday was spent with the Texans, getting drunk at breweries all afternoon and going out to eat at some place that was basically a shack with fried shrimp for sale.  The wife got to see enough of the French Quarter to satisfy her curiosity and we opted to get a decent nights rest to counter the jet lag.

Game 1- John Klauk w Tomb Kings
John's list was basically Settra with some chariots and a couple blocks and casket to bolster him.  The scenario involved capturing tokens with core banner units, which I was ready for.  Short version of this game is that John was a nice guy with a well painted themed army, but was just not ready for how fast I was all over him.  He also had some horrendous luck, culminating in Settra being physically beaten down by Eternal Guard in the Venom Thicket.  The eagle was surprisingly clutch in this game, blocking the mega chariot unit until Orion could deal with it in combat.  Other than some really bad rolls on charges, this game was pretty much just me swarm charging things. 

So, 20-0 win for me.  Elsewhere, my wife used her no magic nurgle daemon army to dismantle a poor unsuspecting dark elf player with similar results.

Game 2- A Dwarf Player, who's name escapes me
Ok, dwarves are an army I hate to face but this was by far the tamest dwarf army I had ever seen.  He had no war machines beyond a pair of plain jane organ guns, which I deleted almost immediately.  His copters ended up getting chased down by my Sisters.  His main block with the super killy Lord on a trash can lid ended up eating a combined charge from Orion, my BSB, and the Eternal Guard.  Much to his dismay, I put the BSB up against his General in the challenge, which negated most of his tricks (no S8 D6MW, no 3+ ward) and chewed him up in two rounds of combat.  This freed up Orion to mow down 10+ stunties a round on his own and secured me the win.

Another 20-0 win!  Elsewhere, my wife managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by throwing six dice at her one spell and losing her Papa Nurgle against a mixed god DoC army, losing 9-11.

Game 3- Cheaty McCheaterson w Lizardmen
I am not going to dignify this game by describing what happened, beyond that it mostly involved me shooting up skinks and Orion skunking a knight bus while all the other guy did was 6 dice Kroaks spell from flying skink delivery systems all game long.  What I am going to mention is how 6 different people _including the TO_ came up to warn me that this guy was a known cheater.  Knowing this in advance, I watched his dice rolls and basically let him get away with minor stuff and only called him on things when it mattered, mostly because I was having a good day one and did not want to spoil it by having a giant argument with some guy who obviously cared more about winning than I did.  What I did not catch was that he had provided me with no copy of his army and had taken it upon himself to add extra models to all his units, most critically his Cold One Rider bus, which Orion would have decimated early enough to finish tabling him if it had contained the correct number of models.  I also would have not had to spend extra rounds mopping up skink units that magically doubled in size.

Now, this was the TO's first major event, so I do not want to bag on him.  We all make errors running these things and stuff happens.  Having said that, if you have a known cheater playing an out of town guy, maybe someone should verify he is not doing the same cheats in this game that he had already been busted for in prior events, if you are even going to let him into the tournament.  Worse still, I never should have been paired against this guy in the first place as he entered the round with 20 BP and I had the full 40.  Worse than that, had this guy not dropped (he got wind he was about to be busted for the extra models thing by someone else) out after our game, he was about to be paired up with someone with 48 BP in that round where he would have only had 28.  I am not sure how the pairings were being done, but post round 2 is should have been raw BP and most assuredly so by round 4.  The pairings thing would continue to be.... odd... all weekend.

Anyhow, despite rampant cheating and all that other jazz, I pulled a 12-8 win out of my butt.  My wife had similar luck and score defeating a wood elf player running a pretty much stock net list.  I guess all the beatings she put on my woodies paid off.

Saturday Night-
We went en masse to a nicer restaurant and talked nerd and warhammer.  The slipped disk and general jet lag meant getting to bed early, though.  Over dinner, Julian (the French Texan) gave me the rundown on the list cheating thing and we talked about how the pairings were wonky.  I resolved myself that I had a decent shot at doing well, as long as I didn't pull any of the Dwarf Juggernaughts that were all sitting near perfect (due to the scenario designs).

Game 4- Peter Reese w 40k Dwarves
Shit.   Well, lets see.... two cannons and two organ guns that reroll everything and mostly hit on 2s... the unkillable lord... 3 copters for objective claiming and denial..  and one whole hill to hide behind.  Yeah, I am screwed.  With the tournament letting copters score and every models that could have a gun in its hands being equipped with one, this was a no holds barred ass whooping with zero chance of pulling anything out of it.  The game was effectively sealed when Orion poked his head out to try and pick off a chopper only to eat the dirt from a single cannon ball.  There was just no way I was going to win against this army and my normal strategy of playing for the draw was rendered pointless due to the gyros being able to claim table corners. 

I salvaged one BP out of this debacle, which is one more than I expected.  I think Peter was antsy about me hiding all game because he bad game voted me for some reason, which is the first one I can ever recall getting in a GT.  Interestingly, my bad game vote of him (for comp which the packet said reflected on those votes, Peter was a perfectly nice guy to play) got overturned by the TO when scores were finalized without them ever even discussing it with me.  Finally, this is another pairing head scratcher, because I entered this game with 52 BP and Peter came in with a perfect score.  My spidey sense was tingling a bit at this point..  Elsewhere, the wife fought to a bloody draw against a skaven army.

Game 5- Richard Vogt w Undead Legions (aka Marching Tomb Kings with some Ghouls)
Three big blocks, some war machines, and a little chaff.  At least our BP were close this time and Richard was a really great guy to play.  I jumped out early, dusting off his war machines but over exposing one of my archer units as a result.  While my wild riders were able to destroy his ghoul unit and the escape to safety, I was unable to get real pressure on his main Tomb Guard unit early enough with Orion to be as aggressive as I wanted.  Richard played tough and pulled what looked like an early route into a narrow loss for himself.  He was by far the best game I had all weekend and I felt like our armies were well matched.

I walked away with a 12-8 win and gave Richard a well deserved best game vote.  My wife ate another narrow loss to a Night Goblin gunline running billions of great weapon heroes, which she was not familiar with facing, so while I ended on a major positive, she ended on a tad of a downer.

Results-
To no one's surprise, the Texans cleaned house with Julian taking overall and Justin nabbing Best General.  Despite decent painting and a 4-1 record, I ended up a disappointing 15th, from a combination of the one bad game vote and some odd paint scoring (more on that in the event review post later) and my wife came in a few places back.  I did the best on Battle Points of all the wood elves, in a field rife with Dwarf Gunlines, while rocking Orion, so I am pretty happy with how I did.  I was just a little salty about playing a known cheater I never should have been paired against and likely being paired up against the toughest army in the room the round following.  The scoring and pairing oddities added to that non-plussed feeling.  The Texans were awesome to hang out with and I in no way regret going to this event, but its not one I will be coming back to for a variety of reasons.


Unit by Unit Breakdown-
Eagle-
Strangely, this guy was more productive than he normally is, but that may have been due to all of the other fast threats in my army and not needing him very often.  He ended up basically winning the first game for me and the worst game he had was dying to copters while cowering behind a building in game four.  I think his appearance helps my painting score, so I guess I will try and keep him for now.

Wild Riders-
Another day at the office.  The charged, stuff died.  I don't think they let me down at all this weekend.

Sisters of the Thorn-
Amazingly enough, I did not miss having extra magic and my phases were productive with just these two units.  They also did well in their combat role, engaging isolated chaff and monsters in multiple games.  I forgot how much fun these five packs are.

Eternal Guard-
Again, they did what was expected.  That is to say, sat in a Venom Thicket and secured objectives.  Their major moment of glory was punking Settra in game one, but they did their task dependably all weekend.

Glade Guard-
Despite the guy plopping almost 20 extra skinks on the table beyond what he should have, they still erased an entire skink cloud in two and a half turns.  They also ganked war machines fairly quickly, aside from the game 4 guy with the ward banner.  Very solid performance against less than ideal targets all weekend.

Glade Riders-
I brought them to help with objectives and they did just that.  Aside from that one task, they were pretty much a non factor but people did over react to their ambush potential.  Unless an event goes nuts with the objectives again, there is not a lot of chance I will use these guys very often, though.

Stag BSB-
I threw her away needlessly a couple games, but when I didn't she really came through for me.   She tied down a giant skeleton block, beat down a dwarf lord, and killed some salamanders, among other things.  Very solid weekend from her.

Orion-
I brought him to fight with, but often I was stuck just shooting with him for various reasons.  Sometimes people just did not want to engage him.  Sometimes, the deathstar was just to big to engage late game.  Sometimes they had more guns than the entire state of Texas and he had to hide.  When he did fight, he was effective and decisive, but he was not as fun or versatile as the Dragon Lord.  I probably could and should have been more aggressive with him.

Paul's Carnival of Chaos List

Deadline for lists arrived, so after debating some lessons from WCGT and Broadside, here is the list I submitted:

Orion
Captain on Stag, BSB, Shield, Spear, Starfire Arrows, Armor of Destiny

20 Gladeguard w Banner, Musician, Trueflight Arrows
20 Gladeguard w Banner, Musician, Trueflight Arrows
20 Eternal Guard w Banner, Musician
5 Gladeriders w Banner, Musician

6 Wildriders w Banner
6 Wildriders w Banner
5 Sisters of the Thorn w Banner, Musician
5 Sisters of the Thorn w Banner, Musician

Eagle

So, rather than rely on terrain that may or may not be there, I decided to add more core shooters and infantry.  I also yanked the metal wizard, since I have Orion and the Wild Riders to punch armor.  While I am uncomfortable running two large archer blocks, the need for core units with banners for the scenarios.  Also, the archers are simply the most productive units in core.  I am hoping that the Eternal Guard can delay attacks and that my glade rider unit can show up late and grab some objectives late.  The eagle is there purely for the painting score and final objective.

Will I do ok with the limited end times?  Unclear with the large amount of Skaven and Dwarves out there for this.  It is going to involve a lot of hiding Orion until cannons have been addressed.  I can move fast, hit hard, and shoot well.  But I am pretty frail, so I will need to be selective in my fights.

Broadside Unit by Unit After Action Report

Until I get a decent video recorder, the most useful information I can post after a drunken GT outing is likely unit by unit performance reviews.  So, here it is for the Bash.

 

Waywatchers-

One five pack was extremely versatile, without being over the top.  They chipped at knights and hunted down war machines, which is exactly what I brought them for.  Scouting let me hose other people's vanguarding, which was also very clutch.  These guys were, once again, solid performers in every game.

Treewoman-

While I knew this model would be good against elves, I did not expect Strangleroot to be as productive and I was continually impressed at her ability to hold the line.  Against Empire, she ate a unit of flagellants.  In two games against dark elves, she held up entire flanks on her own while clearing out many threats.  In losing efforts, she still pulled her weight, helping me secure a draw against Filip and threaten the dwarf player in various ways.  I think I have to reconsider her in the present meta, especially now that Wild Riders are filling in for the knight killing role I was used to using her for in the prior book.  And when teamed with a High Mage for Walk Between Worlds and Apotheosis, she just performs that much more amazing.

 

Wild Riders-

These guys pretty much did what they usually do, sealing games against Empire and Dark Elves for me.  I positioned them a bit wrong against Filip, but outside of that, they were the ultimate fire and forget missile in the army.  I do think with all of the big stuff in this army, I could have dropped one unit for some sisters, but I have zero complaints.

 

Glade Guard-

I really felt like at times that I simply had too much shooting in my army.  The problem is, nothing else in core troops even comes close to them in terms of performance.  The Eternal Guard are an ok tarpit, but I lack the ethical dubiousness to conga line them like I should at times and they just die to armored enemies.  Glade Riders are just.... terrible, though the objective based nature of that event means I will run them at Paul's CoC next month.  And Dryads.... well, yeah.  So I am at this weird place where I feel I have too much shooting, but taking anything else is just spotting my opponent 300 points.  I will have to contemplate this....

 

Waystalker-

One single stalker is always a great choice.  He can snipe out champs to clear the way for the dragon to do work,  scout to give me vanguard defense, chip wounds off of wizards and BSBs, and act as late game chaff to protect the archers.  This guy did something useful every game, even against chaos and dwarves.  I think any more than one is a waste, but one of these is a dynamite utility unit.

 

Stag Rider BSB-

I was worried about the reduced ward save (AoD had to go to the dragon rider), but the fact is that with the Treewoman, Unicorn, and Dragon out there, this guy was so far down everyone's list that it did not matter.  I was not as good at getting him in this weekend, but when he did it was decisive.  I probably would have been better served by doing a moonstone on foot BSB, but the stag looks great and its really fun to use.  Outside of one positioning error against Filip, it did ts job all weekend.

 

Unicorn-

Word is kind of out on her, so she did not see as much action, but she still was dominant.  The only time I lost her was against the dwarf player (who rolled 11 on a charge to flank her with slayers), but that game was a lost cause anyhow.  Having the dragon on the table takes a lot of heat off of her and she combos amazingly well with the treewoman.  All told on the weekend, she bagged a Tz Warshrine, Cold One Knights, two bolt throwers, and a gyro copter.  And, oh yeah, she also cast a lot of spells.  Once again, she was the star of the army.

 

Dragon Lord-

After WCGT, I had more experience under my belt with this guy, though I was still at a loss at what to do with him at times, mostly due to the frail nature of the rider.  Obsidian Blade was clutch again, giving me real threat against the numerous 1+ armor guys I faced.  The dwarf game made him a big liability, but he did manage to at least see combat.  The biggest issue with him is that he just cannot compete with less expensive combat lords from the chaos books, but in the games against T3 armies, he facerolled his way through the ranks.  His best two games were against Donavan and Manual, where he laid waste to armored cavalry and rampaged in the rear ranks of armies.  The biggest bonus he brings to the table is taking heat off of the other big solo models I run, so I guess he was a net positive.  Tack on the ludicrously good paint job my wife did on him, and I am loath to leave him home.  I do think I need to find a good unit to pair with him, like warhawks or Sisters, though.

BSB Batreps

The Broadside Bash went down this weekend.  I ended up adding a unit champ to a unit to be able to score a point in one scenario, but I otherwise ran the list I posted earlier.  With the sciatic nerve killing me, Bama (the TO) was very gracious and let me set up camp on one table all weekend.  Also my club mates, the Choops, helped my wife and I out all weekend.  So many thanks to them, as well.  Anyhow, here are some basic overviews of what went down:

Game One-  Manual w Empire, messed up random deployment scenario

Manual had a small mix of everything empire had to offer, including some knights, demis, a cannon, a luminark, and a life mage.  The odd deployment (see broadsidebash.BlogSpot.com for scenario details) more or less doomed him and I was able to use my superior archers and movement to remove his shooting and isolate his army.  There was not much tactical about this game, beyond a couple sacrifices I made to pull his grandmaster unit out to where the Wild Riders could flank charge them.  It was basically all over in 3 turns.  Manual was upbeat about it and would net my theme vote for the weekend.

Game Two- Donavan Stoddard w Dark Elves, Dawn Attack

Donavan is likely the most fun person to play in all of warhammer and his armies are extremely well painted.  It was also very tame by DE standards, sporting small witch units, a mix of shooters, a Charybdis, Cold ones, and a centerpiece unit of corsairs with two assasins and his L4 Beast wizard.  Unfortunately for him, my army was tailor made to take this kind of army on and despite losing the wild riders and scouts to early action, I did my normal plan in this matchup.  I retreated in the center to let him move forward, while the dragon and solo characters pounced on the smaller chaff units.  While this goes on, my archers are drilling his shooters, giving me ranged dominance for the game.  The two key moments of the game for me tactically, were the tree woman belting his hero (rolled 6 vs tree whack !) and then flanking his main block.  This let the dragon go to work on just about everything else until it ultimately mopped up that block at the end, leaving one assassin as Donavan's sole survivor.  Another massacre with full bonus for me and I would end up giving Donavan my appearance and sports votes.

Game Three-  Filip w Warriors of Chaos, Modified Blood and Glory

Filip is my clubmate and runs balls hard armies.  He also knows just about all my tricks and tendencies.  His army was pretty unforgiving, with trolls led by a Mounted Tz BSB, Tz Disk Lord of rapage, and flying Tz Metal Wizard of nope.  He bolstered this with a Warshrine, Skullcrushers, dogs, some fast cav, and chariots to control his flanks.  This was going to be uphill for me all the way, but with Swedish Comp, I at least had a 500 point edge going into it.  The game that followed did not disappoint.  Normally Filip and I manage to do 6 turns and have time to spare, but thisgame had so much random dancing around and strategic magic and shooting, that we barely made it to the bottom of five.  The main highlights were his chariots getting ground out by the archers, my unicorn taking down the shrine, and the tree woman.  Filip charged crushers in on the tree expecting to blow through, but the tree held firm and allowed my dragon to rear charge the unit.  This ultimately cost me the dragon, but I netted the crushers and kept his Tz Lord busy for most of the game.  This enabled me to eek out a hard fought draw, which against Filip is a gift, since I cannot fool or overpower him.  IT also meant we likely knocked one another out of contention, but alas 13 point draw is something I gladly accept.  I really wish I had taken a video of this game, because it was easily one of the most tactically complex games I have had in the last two years, rivaled only by my game with Micah two weeks ago.

Day 2-
Game Four-  Xavier w 40k Dwarves, Meeting Engagement.

Four war machines, engineer, two spell eater runes, slayers, long beards, thunderers, three copters, and the 5+ vs shooting banner.  Did I forget to mention Meeting Engagement?  Yeah all my big stuff started in reserve and he just built his little castle in the corner.  Somehow this list, that should have been playing in the other side of the room with the rest of the 40k players, comped out at a 14.  My normal list might have been able to do something, but this fluffy noodle and his hot dice meant I pretty much got shot off the table without killing anything.  In retrospect, when I saw that half my army was going to reserve, I should have just hid and taken a draw.  But Xavier was a bit squirrely, as most dwarf players are, and might have zeroed me out for not agreeing to die to him piecemeal, and 6 points of sports were more than the 4 battle points I might have preserved, so who knows?  I do know that I hate dwarves and the fact that the hardest army in the room capped out the comp just confirms what I always knew about Swedish.  Ah well, I did net three bonus points, so 10 point loss for me.

Game 5- Andrew w Dark Elves, Battle Lines

Finally a game with normal deployment!  And after the last soul crushing game, I was going to take it out on someone else who probably did not deserve it.  That someone was Andrew, a faily nice guy running a very reasonable dark elf list.  He had the usual two Xbow and two Bolt Thrower setup for shooters.  He also had three big infantry blocks (Executioners, Black Guard, and Witches) with their own support characters, along with a single chariot to guard a flank.  For magic, he had a L3 Peg Mounted Shadow caster and a five pack of Warlocks.  This was a good solid army for the comp system, but unfortunately my army was tailor made to destroy it.  What followed was not pretty.  On one flank, my scouts and wild riders hassled his shooters, while the stag and unicorn did the same on the opposing flank.  The dragon and tree woman lit up his executioner unit, leaving them to be ignominiously thunderstomped out of existence.  In the center, I calmly ignored and retreated from the other two blocks.  He had one chance to open the game up, when his chariot charged the dragon, but he rolled average and I managed to kill it in one round.  At the end of three turns, he had the witches, a handful of blackguard and his wizard left.  I had lost nothing (though the Waystalker was about to fall on his sword to get the archers clear) and was setting up all of my final mop up charges.  He politely conceded and I packed up early.

Final tally had me at 83 Battle, max sports and comp, but I fell a little short in each trophy category.  I did take 4th overall, though I never got a chance to play the guys ahead of me due to that round three draw derailing me.  Of note, this is the first event I went two with Woodies where I was not the top scoring wood elf since the new book hit.  Clifford managed to go 4-0 with an all forest spirit army, somehow managing to play only one of the many chaos and daemon players there.  For my part I did well enough, especially given that I faced two of the roughest three possible matchups in the room for me (my wifes mono Nurgle DoC being the third) and I had a great time.  Our club also did exceptionally well, on thw whole, nabbing most of the top ten, though hats off to Brian Brown of Capri for hauling in his first overall win.  Despite being tired as hell from WCGT being two weeks prior, this event was well worth it and Bama did a grat job for his first year running it after Wade stepped down from the job.

WCGT Unit by Unit After Action Report

So, when I do these events, I like to evaluate the units one by one.  So, here is the breakdown:

 

Eagles-

Sort of useful, but mostly pointless.  They look nice, but they had no real functional impact on any of my games.  I expected as much, but they were there for looks.

 

Wild Riders-

These suicide sized units were great disposable killing units, but not having the larger units against Jeff in  round 3 hurt me.  Still, they sold themselves dearly every game and outright won me the game against Jacob.  I prefer the bigger units, but there is no wrong way to run these guys.

 

Eternal Guard-

Another unit that I took for looks and comp, but they did alright, mostly thanks to camping in a venom thicket and daring people to charge them all weekend.  A general lack of killing power hurt, but being a core tar pit worked out well enough.  Obviously archers are better, but for the comp and appearance factor, I was satisfied with what they did.

 

Gladeguard-

A single twenty man trueflight unit was all I needed to dominate every shooting phase all weekend.  These guys are the best troops in the army, bar none.  When combined with Walk Between Worlds, they are awesome at picking up late game points and securing objectives.

 

Shadowdancer-

Overpriced, but still good utility.  I doubt I would take one without using it as a scroll caddy, but having the utility in the spearmen unit was handy and she was productive in every game, including letting me get the frog points risk free in round 4.

 

Waystalker-

Dynamite every game.  Pretty much mandatory as far as I am concerned from now on.  Sniping champs, knocking wounds off of wizards and BSBs, and scouting to inhibit movement, he did it all for me.  I should have had two of him and no eagles.

 

Stag BSB-

A little more frail than normal with only the 5++ ward, she still put in work collecting points and generating combat resolution.  This unit, in tandem with the unicorn, did most of the heavy lifting for me all weekend.

 

Unicorn Weaver-

She lived all weekend, never even getting touched.  She absorbed tons of damage, ran off dragons, hunted chaff, preyed on war machines, and was generally the single most productive model in my army.  If there is a superstar in the army, it is her.

 

Dragon Lord-

Obsidian Blade wound up being clutch for me numerous times.  He died a lot, but generally made the enemy pay for killing him.  I probably could have used him better and/or more conservatively, but there is no fun in that.  I will get another chance to learn from my mistakes at the Broadside this weekend, but really I enjoyed playing him and he was always at least pulling even for me.

West Coast GT basic Batreps

Well, $600 of bar tab and two tired nerdy days later, the event is over.  I think I had more fun this year than the prior two, particularly thanks to the Elks Lodge being such gracious hosts to our raucous community.  I got five excellent games, but I was largely too busy moving models and holding a margarita to take pictures, so here are some basic rundowns of my games.

 

Game 1 vs Victor Herrara (Ogres), Scenario Mad Mickey

 

Victor had one of the other super soft armies in the room, sporting two hunters riding stone horns, two ogre blocks with his BSB and wizard, plus a Thundertusk, and some random chaffy stuff.  With all of the fast moving monsters, I was going to have problems and the Snow Blower and Ironblaster meant that I was going to face immediate pressure.  Most of the bonus points were tied up into killing Mickey, who is murderous against MSU armies, so I decided on a two part strategy.  First, I was going to burn down Mickey as fast as possible, both to get free protection counters (spells against him could not be countered) and to get him out of my path.  Second, I planned on using an all out rush to bottle him in his own deployment zone so that he would not be able to get ogres into my infantry units late in the game.  The downside is that I had to more or less allow the Snowblower and Ironblaster roam free for a while.

 

For my part, I executed the plan pretty well, trading wild riders for one stone horn and the wounded dragon for the other.  The Snow Blower eventually made it to my lines and my unicorn had to eat a ironblaster charge after burning the mouse down, but she held all game until some counter charges ran off the ironblaster.  When the dust settled, I had my wizard, archers, shadowdancer, and BSB left.  Victor had his two Irongut units and two characters remaining.  We ended up with a draw and three bonus points each in what was a crazy dice game.  But, I was glad to take a high draw early and avoid the slaughterhouse lists at the top tables for a while, so it was all good.

 

Game 2 vs Jacob Berry (Woodies), Scenario House Wife

 

Jacob is undoubtedly the most fun guy you will ever play at any event.  His list was the crazy 3 dragon army with one wild rider unit and some archers to back it up.  The downside for him in this was that my larger trueflight block was able to delete his smaller units piece meal, while I slugged it out in the table center and kept his dragons bottled up.  In what would be the epic moment of the tourney for me, I declared a flank charge with Wild Riders against one dragon, where I needed box cars to get in.... and made it, slaying the dragon before it got to swing.  My general ended up hanging in there long enough to gank the Sisters of Twilight and his general, before getting munched, but this allowed the Unicorn girl and BSB to collect two of the riderless dragons at the end of the game.  I ended the game with a major win and all the bonus points.

 

Game 3 vs Jeff Sues (High Elves), Beach Blanket Bingo

 

Jeff had basically a Phoenix Guard deathstar and a Dragon Prince deathstar, with associated bits of chaff scattered around.  Since VP meant nothing in this scenario, I was at somewhat of a disadvantage due to all of my scoring units being small and frail, which would require me to address his shooting and chaff.  For his part, Jeff rammed the Prince bus in my face, where I met it with the dragon and Eternal Guard.  In what took far to long, I was able to murder the entire unit to the man, since Jeff kept holding on 4-5s all the time.  Ultimately, I was kept completely off of the blankets and Jeff held one with his last remaining unit, so major loss with all bonus points.

 

Day 2-

Game 4 vs Jon Milano (Vampire Counts), Feeling Froggy?

 

Jon had a pretty well rounded Vamp list, with the blender lord in the Knight bus, some infantry blocks, and a terrorgeist.  For my part, I planned on using Arcane Unforging to detooth the vamp lord to something my dragon could engage.  Jon had other plans and sucked his general along with half his bus into the warp on the very first spell of the game.  I felt like a jackass winning that way, but it is a tournament and so I engaged in mop up operations.  Full points to me in what was a seal clubbing.

 

Game 5 vs Micah Pierce (High Elves), Center Stage

 

Micah had a star dragon, two knight bus units, some eagles, and some fast cavalry.  While his list was soft, his armor saves presented a challenge and he had a better dragon than I did.  In my mind, the plan was to avoid the dragon and engage everything else.  Without pictures it is impossible to convey the close maneuvers and blood bath that ensued, but short version is that my general sold his life dearly to keep his dragon away from the rest of the battle while I won the chaff war.  When the dust settled, I had my Wizard, BSB, and archers.  Micah had a half dead star dragon with no one riding it.  So, minor win for me with most of the bonus points.

 

Final results-

I came in 5th overall, which with the super soft army I took, I was more than happy with.  There were chances to secure more points if I had rolled better in places, but I also got freebies when I made the huge charge on Jacob and Jon's Vampire decided to take a vacation into the warp with seven of his pals.  I have no complaints and am pretty happy with my score.

 

Unit by unit recap to come..... 

Some Pictures of WCGT Army



 

As can be seen, space is tight on the tray.  Luckily, most of it is resin and plastic as my bad sciatic nerve won't allow me to carry much around.  The three women in the woods piece are meant to represent various objective markers for the weekend scenarios.  The big wing blue girl is my unicorn riding High Weaver.  Last minute touch ups are done.  Hopefully, I am sober enough to take some photos for proper batreps. 

Broadside Bash Musings

As my wife can tell you, I pine over my army relentlessly when trying to select a list.  With the Broadside being two weeks after West Coast, this added several complications to my normally manic list selection process.  These factors are:

 

1) The effective end of 8th-  Broadside is one of the last events before the end of 8th Edition, in all likelihood, so I want to go out playing one of my preferred armies.  This is especially true if it is one that I have not touched in a while.

 

2) Filth Factor-  The Broadside has been, of late, arguably the dirtiest tournament for list design in the area and by all accounts this year is not an exception.  I might go with a soft army, but it needs to have the tools to at least put up a fight with some of the filth out there.

 

3) Dragon-  Wife painted this for me for WCGT and it is criminal not to use it.

4) Scenarios-  Broadside boasts some of the most off the wall scenarios in existence.  This year has some real doozies and mobility/ranged threat is going to be key in most of them.

 

So, I debated Ogres, Daemons, and even Bretts, but I ultimately caved and settled in on using the Dragon again.  But in the interest of executing the scenario objectives as best I can, I knew I needed to make some changes from WCGT, which had different scenario demands.  Both events use Swedish Comp in all its arbitrary glory, but the spread was a bit narrower this time, so I settled in on this list:

Glade Lord, Dragon, Armor of Destiny, Obsidian Blade, Shield, Starfire Arrows
Spell Weaver, L4 high Mage, Talisman of Preservation, Dispel Scroll

Glade Captain, BSB, Great Stag, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of Endurance, Shield, Spear, Starfire Arrows
Waystalker

19 Gladeguard, Banner, Musician, Trueflight
20 Gladeguard, Banner, Musician, Trueflight

6 Wild Riders, Banner
6 Wild Riders, Banner

5 Waywatchers
Treeman, Strangleroots

So, no unit champ which costs me a point from the cheater scenario (unless there is a provision for if the enemy does not have a champ), but I get the scout threat of a small group of Waywatchers who also help in the scenarios requiring getting a unit in certain places.  Again, the BSB is a little under protected, but the wood elf book lacks defensive items and the other big models are more important.  The treeman is a bit of a concession, but I have been finding out that its not too shabby in the current elf meta, plus the Ultraforge Tree Woman model I will use for this is the entire reason I started the wood elf army in the first place.

I am probably going to get curb stomped all weekend, but if I can pull some wins I should place well.  And with the Broadside being what it is, I would rather lose playing the army I want than stinking up the joint with some filth.  In the end, the paint job on my dragon the wife did for me and the Tree Woman sold me on taking the army.  Hopefully, I get the ugly draw in the cheater scenario, so I can eat the entire poop sandwich in one sitting.  With the added shooting, the more elves I face the better off I will actually be.

For now, I need to focus on the WCGT, however.  Once I get trounced at that next weekend, I will put up some batreps and hopefully a couple pictures.
~Q

Settled in for WCGT

After a little playtesting and some serious drunken thought, I did manage to settle in on a list for West Coast GT.  While I feel that the Ogre list and its variants and the Slaanesh DoC armies were more competitive, I decided to put them aside for something unusual.  Having just come off of Masters, with its hypercompetitive atmosphere, I realized that in two years at WCGT I have always brought the softest army to the event.  Even having done this, I have always done pretty well, winning one year with combat night goblins and coming in 13th with no magic woodies under the old book.  I decided I would like to keep the trend going and (more importantly) that the style of play that the Masters format creates is not something I enjoy in the slightest.  So, while I will keep running the tougher stuff at events that traditionally invite it (Broadside, Alamo), I am just going to run what I enjoy and let the chips fall where they may.  On the one hand, it can be frustrating to lose a game simply because you brought a knife to a gunfight, but I have my trophies and I am fine getting drunk and slogging it out with the hobby guys.  To that end, here is what I came up with:

Glade Lord on Forest Dragon, Shield, Obsidian Blade, Armor of Destiny
Spell Weaver on Unicorn, Hex Scroll, Talisman of Preservation, L4 High
Glade Captain on Stag, BSB, Asrai Spear, Starfire Arrows, Enchanted Shield, 5++ Ward, OTS
Shadowdancer, L1 Mage of Shadow, Dispel Scroll
Waystalker

20 Glade Guard, Banner, Musician, Trueflight Arrows, Scarecrow Banner
25 Eternal Guard, Full Command, Gleaming Pendant

6 Wild Riders, Shields, Banner
6 Wild Riders, Shields, Banner

Eagle
Eagle

Ok, so first the cons:  It has a lot of points tied up in some very frail characters.  Without the Sisters units, it is very thin in the monster hunting and magic utility department.  The Wild Rider units are much smaller than I like to run them.  It is a little light on fortitude for this kind of list.  There are no Waywatchers.  The entire army depends on the dragon doing well against hard targets.  The BSB is not as well protected in this army as I would like it to be.  Finally, I have to get a dragon pained up in the next couple weeks, which will be tricky for me as I still have bad nerve damage in my thumb from a cut long ago and I was never that good of a painter to begin with.

Now the pros:  Aside from some of the fast cavalry bits I normally take, it has every toy I like in the army in there in some form.  While smaller than normal, the Wild Rider units have shields and with the way I suicide them every game anyhow, they are a lot more expendable.  I get to use my nice converted Eagle models, though one used to be my BSB I doubt anyone will care about a guy on one of the models.  The shadowdancer has some really neat tricks you can pull with her in conjunction with the Eternal Guard and your free forest.  I never really rolled 4++ wards worth a damn on my BSB before, so the minor defensive downgrade probably won't even be noticed.  I really like dragons and have two awesome models to work on for the one I want to field.  It has both the dispel scroll and froggy scroll in there.  Finally, it comps a whopping 16.2 in the Swedish system that this event plans to use, despite being really not much of a downgrade from my normal list that comps 11.5 in the same system.

So, the Chupacabrahs has a BBQ at Zack's bachelor pad and we did some playtesting.  I chose to try this list to see if I enjoyed it or not, with the idea that if I didn't I would default to the ogre army.  I played four games on the day, two against newer guys running netbuilds and two against GT veterans in the club.  The first two games were against a dragon led Dark Elf army with a witch star and stronger high elf infantry list with abundant shooting.  In both of those games, one unit of trueflight was enough to apply the pain to the enemy shooting and my mobility let me dictate the combats.  I then played against a DoC  double thirster with Horror spam army in one of the WCGT scenarios.  Against that list, I struggled a bit, though I did manage to win through the scenario.  I used my ranged units to target the DoC units that had gateway when I likely should have tried to apply some hits to the monsters.  Finally, I played Zack's nurgle WoC army.  I was so tired and drunk by that point that I just played flat out stupidly and Zack stomped me.  In my drunken haze I did learn some useful things, however.

Lessons learned:
1) Eternal Guard with a Shadow in a Venom Thicket are pretty good.
2) Don't commit the Unicorn or BSB to combats early, ESPECIALLY to large infantry blocks.
3) A lone Waystalker is still pretty god damn annoying to deal with.
4) Monster Mash armies are going to be an issue unless I can position my Wild Riders better.
5) I will have a hard time scoring bonus points in the Mickey Scenario.
6) A dragon lord with Obsidian Blade is an enemy elf player's worst nightmare.
7) Witches do not like Fiery Convocation.
8) Sisters probably cost way too much comp to justify being used in this system.
9) Eagles are still useful if the rest of your army is fast enough to take the heat off of them.
10) One large unit of surgical Trueflight guys and one sniper is all the shooting you really need.

I will put up some pictures later once I get more done on the dragons.  But for now, my list is handed in and I am committed to this army.  Hopefully I can get a little more testing in on it before the GT happens.
~Q

On the Horizon, Paul's Carnival of Chaos

There is a new event coming to the New Orleans area, Paul's CoC run by longtime southern vet Chris Saik.  The wife really wants to go to New Orleans and the Texans (who are great to get drunk with) will be there in force, so off we go to worship Paul's CoC!

They are running a watered down version of end times rules and allowing people to select special characters, but with the stipulation that there can be only one allowed at the tournament and you must submit your army to lay claim to them.  I have been hankering to play Orion for a while, so I figured what the hell.  Here is my list:

Orion
Spellsinger L2 Metal, Moonstone
Glade Captain, BSB, Stag, Armor of Destiny, Asrai Spear, Shield
19 Gladeguard, FC, Trueflight, Standard of Swiftness
6 Glade Riders Manner, Musician, Hagbane Arrows
6 Glade Riders Banner Musician, Hagbane Arrows
10 Wildriders, Banner
10 Wildriders, Banner
5 Sisters of the Thorn, Banner, Musician
5 Sisters of the Thorn, Banner, Musician
Eagle

So, no scroll and no Waystalker, but those were needed sacrifices to the comp in place and I really need metal to handle other super characters and knights.  A lot will also depend on if they rule Orion as denying armor saves in CC (most do, but not all), because without that ability I will be playing the evasion game a lot.   The Glade Riders kind of suck but its a needed unit to claim objectives, as only core units with banners can do this.  While ambush is normally a drawback, in the case of this army it will keep them alive late game to nab distant ones.

Preparing for the West Coast GT

In an apparent effort to be more like the US Masters, this event is adopting parts of the Swedish Comp system this year.  Specifically, your first two rounds of pairings and your actual comp score will be tied solely to this system.  On the one hand, this is good because people have some control over their destiny without worrying about judge or player opinion affecting them in an excessively adverse manner.  On the other hand, Swedish Comp (like any hard comp system) has various holes and exploits that cunning mathematicians can take advantage of.  It frankly made Masters more of a list building exercise and less of an actual tactical showdown, which seems to be the norm for east coast events of late (more on that when I do the Masters Review).  I am hoping that WCGT does not go down this path.

 

Anyhow, with that in mind I have a choice to make with my selection of armies and several options jump out at me:

 

Option 1- Wood Elves with combat emphasis, Comp 12.5ish

Spell Weaver w Unicorn, 4++ Ward, Dispel Scroll, Sword of Antiheroes, L4 High Magic

Glade Captain, BSB, Stag, Armor of Destiny, Asrai Spear, Shield

Waystalker w Bow of Loren

Spellsinger, w Frog Scroll, L1 Lore of Metal

19 Gladeguard w FC and Scarecrow Banner

25 Eternal Guard w FC and Gleaming Pendant

10 Wild Riders w Banner

10 Wild Riders w Banner

5 Sisters of the Thorn w Banner, Musician

5 Sisters of the Thorn w Banner, Musician

7 Waywatchers

Great Eagle

 

The comp on this is actually pretty decent, but its a bit thin on chaff.  All my main combat units are there and I managed to get the frog scroll and a metal wizard into it for some armor killing.  Main knocks against it are that it is lower comp that I would like to be at this event and its made some serious sacrifices in the shooting phase to get to that point.  Of what I would play, it is presently the best painted, with lots of conversions and detail work help from my friend Nathan all over the place.

 

Option 2- Ogre Kingdoms multi purpose army, Comp 13.2

Slaughtermaster, Sword of Antiheroes, 4++ Ward, Dispel Scroll, L4 Lore of Heavens

Bruiser, BSB, Armor of Destiny, Great weapon

Butcher, Frog Scroll, GW, L1 Maw

Hunter, Sword of Might, Charmed Shield, Beastkiller, Harpoon

8 Ironguts w FC

8 Bulls w FC

7 Maneaters w FC, Brace of Pistols, Dragonhide Banner, Poison, Stubborn

Ironblaster

Thundertusk

 

This is the watered down version of the list I wanted to take to masters, specifically with one Ironblaster being replaced by a Hunter and no Sabres in the army.  Downsides are a complete lack of chaff units and light magic weapons.  Upsides are that there are no easily scored points in the army and the Thundertusk makes the Maneaters really hard to take on in combat.  It also will have issues with Purple Sun lists.  The painting here is really very average three color, but it has numerous conversions and I did all of the work on it myself.  I might take this to Broadside if I do not take it to West Coast.

 

Option 3-  Mono Slaanesh, comps 14.6 (LOL)

Keeper, 75/25 L4 Slaanesh

Herald, BSB, Grace Locus, 50

25 Daemonettes w FC and MR1 Banner

25 Daemonettes w FC and Gleaming Pendant

5 Furies of Slaanesh

5 Furies of Slaanesh

5 Seekers of Slaanesh

Soul Grinder of Slaanesh w Claw and Flame Cannon

Soul Grinder of Slaanesh w Claw and Flame Cannon

 

This is the archetypical Slaanesh list that I have been running for the last couple years.  Swann ramped it up with some off god stuff and did very well at the masters and it is what I ended up using to qualify for the masters, so it clearly still works.  Recent tweaks have been adding flame cannons to the grinders and the Lash gift to the herald.  Pros are that it works very well against elves and I know the army better than anything else I play, plus games go very fast with it.  Negatives are that it is very frail to light council and dwarves, plus I am sort of bored with it.  Oh and no frog scroll for funsies. It is the most poorly painted of the options I am considering, but it has several good conversions in it.

 

Option 4- Mono Khorne DoC, comps 13

Bloodthirster 75/25

Bloodthirster 50/25

Herald of Khorne, BSB, Jugg, 50

20 Bloodletters FC w Gleaming Pendant

20 Bloodletters FC

3 Bloodcrushers FC

Soul Grinder of Khorne w Claw, Flamer

Skull Cannon

 

Not a good list, but theme is there and it will be fast and fun to play.  Sadly, the comp is kind of low for how bad this list is, but that's Swedish for you.  Pros include the fun of two flying death machines zooming around the board being a huge pain in the ass for people.  Cons include nothing in the way of chaff and an abundance of cannon bait.  Paint wise this one is close to my wood elves with me having done almost all of the work on it, plus some conversions, but I would need to get my skull cannon and khorne grinder done in order to use this army.  Lack of Frog Scroll is somewhat discouraging, too.  Finally, at least three members of my own club are considering something similar, which would take away from the unique feel it would have.

 

I have three weeks to make up my mind on this crap.  Curse you hobby ADD!

Relaunch!

I sort of gave up on this two years ago, due to time constraints.  But I am now free of managing the league and am scaling back other side activities, so I want to put down some of my thoughts into this blog so I can laugh at my laziness in a few years.

Forthcoming:  Masters Review and West Coast GT previews.