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