Adepticon Results And Thoughts, Fantasy Championships and Teamplay

I certainly think it's a great spell but like everyone has pointed out people don't wish to take DT tests on units. Would be great to cast that, dump a skull onto the unit, it panics and runs away, takes DT test then of course in it's turn it either rallies and takes DT test (classed as movement?) or flees, taking more.

I think that the only army Vengeance sucks against is Ogres. And that's simply because the psychological factor doesn't exist: Who cares if their 3W infantry take DT tests?

Also, M6 helps to mitigate the movement penalty as well.

Game 2 of the Team Tournament.

But first, anyone here a fan of Particle Physics?

Ok, so this game was against Demons and Ogres.

He had 2 units of 3 Mournfangs
5 Ironguts with Bruiser
Ironblaster

30 Bloodletters with Herald
Loremaster of Shadow
3 Flamers
4 Flamers
8 Fleshhounds

His deployment from left to right is a bit like:

Mournfangs, Mournfangs, Ironguts, Ironblaster behind Ironguts, Bloodletters, Loremaster behind Bloodletters, Flamers, Flamers, Flesh hounds.

Ours was:

Branchwraith, 10 GG, 3 sphinx, Alter, 10 GG with 40 archers behind, 5 Treekin, 10 GG

I personally have an irrational fear of flamers, flesh hounds, and shadow loremasters, and so I was thinking from the beginning that we stood no chance. My buddy however, thought we had the game in the bag. I guess he was feeling like his archers were getting ready to do work =)

So, we once again get second turn. And these guys completely surprises us: they are scared pantsless of the Necrosphinx. Seriously. They move their Mournfangs, Ironguts, and Bloodletters at most 2" so that it would need boxcars to charge them. My buddy and I just kinda looked at each other and were like: 'Sweet.'

^.^

and then the shooting phase happened...

>.<

The Ironblaster aims, and kills the necrosphinx. Not too big of a deal. We still have our two other sphinx and the treekin. We still got this. Kinda wishing my casket and catapults were around, but a lucky cannon hit is no big deal. The flamers shoot at the treekin, but they have super strong 4+ armor and don't take wounds.

Our turn and we decide to take care of the Flamers 1st before we move onto the rest of his blocks. my archers move up, and his Alter gets into position. My sphinx shuffle about and move more towards the mournfangs looking for a flank of the bloodletters.

In the shooting phase, 60 archers+Hail of Doom go into the Flamers... killing 2 and wounding a third. The Hail of Doom did no wounds, and his archers put a wound on the 3 man unit. My took down the two other flamers...

Oh, side note: We had one unit champion in one of the units because we couldn't invest the points else where. Because of this, we decided to track his wounds through both games. He killed two bloodletters last game and was responsible for the wound this turn.

Then it was their turn again and with the Necro gone, they march everything up (personally, the warsphinx does more damage... but I guess a flying T8 moster messes with your mind). Magic is ineffective, and then they shoot again.

Iron blaster kills another warsphinx.

Drat.

Well, this is blood and glory so we need to get a couple banners and we're good. So we just go for broke and try and do as much as we can. The surviving warsphinx charges the Ironguts and the treekin make a 9" charge into the flank of the bloodletters. The left most GG move up to delay the mournfangs and the alter sneaks through units to line up a charge on the shadow demon. The Branchwraith does the same from the other side, trapping the Loremaster.

The priest IFs Desiccation on the Ironguts and loses both wizard levels for his troubles.

Shooting sees another 2 flamers go down, but we really don't care about the flamers/hounds/ archers at this point.

In combat, The sphinx kills 2 Ironguts and they stick because even the 1st rank still counts for steadfast. We did our combats simultaneously and so I don't quite know how the Bloodletter combat went, but not many bloodletters died. And being stubborn for crumbing tests helps out a bunch as well. The bloodletters turn to face the treekin.

The next turn sees the Ironblaster charge the Alter and the flamers and hounds move about. The mournfangs clear the path and start to try and to head for my block of 40.

In the magic phase the shadow wizard reduces the Sphinx toughness to 7.

Combat sees another dead orge, but not he's still steadfast. The bloodletters do horrible damage to the treekin. The Iron blaster runs over the Alter and connects with the Sphinx's flank

Next turn, the Branchwraith charges the loremaster and we forget about the Withering. Our Treekin die and the now T7 sphinx is easy pickings for all of the S6.

More stuff happens and eventually my block of 40 archers crumbles to give up their flag and the win.


.... ah well.

Sometimes games like these happen. If it wasn't for the super killy cannon we would have had a chance. It also showed me that sphinx heavy lists are vulnerable unless you can include caskets or catapults in their to deal with cannons. We had the Alter for warmachines, but he can't handle a chariot with a Ogre on top....

So naturally at the end of this game we were both a little bummed out. Kinda feeling cheated by nothing in particular. We decided that we were not agressive enough and that our deployment was off. So, with all chances of winning best general off the table, we just decided that we'd go as agressive as possible for the next game. See if we couldn't get my 40 archers past the middle line. =)

GAME 3!!!!

I'm just going to tell you all right up front: This was the single best game of anything I have ever played. I laughed so hard it wasn't even funny and it completely turned the entire day, as well as the weekend, around for me.

And because it was such a great game, I'm not really going to go into too much detail on it. We were playing against wood elves and warriors. They had 2 units of 30 GG and two units of 50 marauders of Slaanesh with great weapons. They had some other stuff as well.

So according to our plan, everything went on the 12" line. The woodelf player declared that his only objective was to take out every model of my buddy's. Didn't matter if there was a sphinx in his face, as long as there were no more wood elves controlled by us, he'd be happy.

Throughout the game, whenever he would kill one of my buddy's GG, he'd ask him his name. He'd also roll his dice signally as well just to add to it. To make everything even better, his dice's six was replaced with 'Like a Boss.'

His shooting phases went something like this.

*rolls 30 dice getting 15ish hits. After enthusiastically pointing out any cocked dice (for anyone who attended the Tournament, this guy was the one yelling 'COCKED!' the entire time), he rolled each hit*

*on a 4+ to wound*

'Bam! there's a dead Elf!' *My buddy goes to remove a model* 'What was his name?'

(my buddy) 'What?'

'The elf, what was his name?'

'hmmm... Frank'

'Frank, my you rest in peace.' *rolls another 4+* 'Take another one off please.'

'His name is Matt.'

'Matt, your parents never loved you anyway.'


Hahahaha. Oh man, I just really don't know how to describe this game to you all. It really wasn't one actually. It was just us four hanging out and having a grand old time. We ended up losing when the marauders decided to take out an entire sphinx in a turn (The wood elf's glade guard actually put five wounds on a sphinx as well with a single unit in one phase [I saved one though so don't worry]). But that was fine.

I guess this was an 'Ideal' game of warhammer. It was freaking amazing. I can't wait for next year.


So Team Tournament results:
1-2



I'll post my thoughts on all my TK stuff next week sometime.

=> Was this the guy with models he said were ogres, but really they were not? His mournfangs were just juggers that he put on a bigger movement tray (not even on actual chariot bases)?

Just curious.

=> It's what they do. Seriously. Those things are absolutely a Top 5 Units sort of a thing in Warhammer. They are the most accurate cannons in the game, do tremendous damage, can move and shoot, and fight really well. You can expect to lose an important model to them each turn. Be glad he didn't take two.

=> Ah, treekin...how Ushabti should have been.

=> Thank you for knowing the difference between "alter" and "altar."

=> See.

=> Yup, isn't it great how we can use steadfast/stubborn to help our insanely bad troops last a bit, just like how demons can have their awesome troops last? Oh, wait...

=> See, again.

=> When you face Ironblasters, this is going to happen most of the time, not sometimes. Our T8 monsters are no safer from them than 5 skinks would be.

=> In my experience, the casket only does so much to negate cannons/catapult batteries. I love our monsters, but any army with these things (Empire, Dwarf, Skaven, Ogre, Bretonnia, Orcs...) can make a mockery of these supposedly indestructible beasties.


Thanks for the reports. Better luck next time!

=> Was this the guy with models he said were ogres, but really they were not? His mournfangs were just juggers that he put on a bigger movement tray (not even on actual chariot bases)?

Yup. I liked the idea behind his army and I thought that his flamers looked nifty. However, his flesh hounds looked no where near beefy enough to even be considered 2A S5 2W cavalry. Direwolves maybe, but not flesh hounds.

Also, I think that his whole idea of putting 50mm bases on a movement tray to make them 50x100 was clever, but it just looked.. off. I'm guessing he did this because he wanted to save money and not have double the juggers, but with his modeling skills, he could have easily put pins into their feet to swap out bases, or even just have a chariot base have a slot for the jugger base....

While being a good student and researching the Antikythera Mechanism is great and all, I’d thought I’d write down all my thoughts on my Tomb Kings before I forgot.

Arkhan the Black
-This guy is pretty crazy. Being a level 5 is boss and throughout all four of my games I never felt that I was lacking any spells. His ability to put pressure on enemy wizards or drop Doom and Darkness on turn one draws out dispel scrolls like no other. Once he does kill the enemy magic, then he pretty much get’s auto +3 power dice each phase due to his staff. This was pretty brutal against my dwarven opponent, but Arkhan’s magic was offset by my opponent’s ability to generate dispel dice out his ears.

He also has a nice stat line. S5 and T5 means he’s resistant to dwellers and most mage hunting units which charge your bunker. Also, his magic weapon and 3 attacks are nice against the odd etherea. He could also theoretically be used to charge out of a unit and into that random spirit host holding up your warsphinx. Again, his T5 would help protect him from any magic missiles that may be aimed towards him after destroying the spirit host.

The only downside I have found him to have is the fact that he does not heal the army. However, this is offset by a mostly construct army as healing would regain a minimal amount of wounds regardless. Also, I found that his offensive ability greatly decreased once close combat has commenced. This is because most of his offensive spells are direct damage. His magic would then only be used for doom and darkness and soulblight. This makes me think that bringing a couple Light level 2s would be a great idea. This is mainly due to the fact that their spells really kick in once combat has begun.

I think that this guy has a lot of potential. I don’t think I’ve found the list ‘for him’ yet, but once I do I can see him being ridiculous.

25 Archers
-Just a standard bunker except a little bigger to account for any causalities that I may incur. I generally love my archers. I find them so useful. They can take out hard to hit chaff, gutter runners, weapon teams, lone mages, or even just to put a dent into units before my sphinx start their work.

2x 5 Horse Archers
-These guys are ace. Each game they made their points back easy and were great redirectors/speed bumps. The extra 10 shots also came in handy when finishing off anything that the 25 arches couldn’t quite kill.

4 Chariots
-I’ve always appreciated my chariots. They preformed a little less then expected, but I think that was mostly due to the fact that I was rusty. Before Adepticon, I had not had a Fantasy game for easily several months. Also, with the likes of hydras and hellpits roaming around, I don’t think I could drop them from my list. Another thing is that I find they do well against ogres due to their impact hits, weight of attacks, speeds, and immunity to stomp. Ever see a soulblighted bull unit charged by a unit of chariots? It’s pretty awesome.

4 Knights
-I like these guys. I hated the models for a long long time, but after investing all of the paint time, they have grown on me. As with the chariots, I think I’m a bit rusty on how to use them. However, they did well in all the combats they fought and, quite frankly, I enjoy having a 3 up save on at least something in my list.

Warsphinx
-Yes they do die to cannons and luck, but I think they are good. As for that Iron blaster during the team tournament, he actually had around a 6% chance to kill two sphinx in two turns so I’m not factoring that into my opinion of them. However, I am factoring in the fact that it is very easy for a few sixes to ruin all of your plans (not sure if I mentioned it, but in my third team game, some marauders one turned a sphinx and some glade guard came very close to doing the same). Besides investing so much time on the models and receiving many compliments on their paint, I am having a difficult time finding a reason not to include them in my lists.

This is because they are my answer to all of the S5+ hordes that is so prevalent. GW dwarves, Halberd Khorne warriors, Bloodletters, Marauders, Ironguts, ect, ect. Necroknights simply cannot stand to a unit dishing out S5 attacks. However, sphinx can. There will always be that threat of an opponent rolling triple+ sixes when attacking you, but I would take that over the increased number of attacks wounding my knights on 3s and only allowing a 5 up save. Mathhammer says that a block of GW marauders does around 8 wounds to my Knights while only 1.3 to my sphinx. I would assume that each other S5+ block provides like numbers.

Also, I have debated switching a single sphinx out for either more knights or some other unit. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that you need to have a good number of sphinx to handle all the anomalies a dice game naturally contains. Also, staring down three sphinx is quite scary.

Catapults
-I missed my catapults. I don’t know why I stopped using them. I think one of the issues in my games is that I was so fixated on the doom and darkness and catapult combo. It skewed my target priorities and cost me my third game. They don’t always hit and sometimes that destroy themselves, but I don’t think Arkhan would be nearly as effective without them simply because of the doom and darkness combo threat.

Casket
-Wouldn’t leave home without it. It clears up chaff, gives extra dice, draws out dispel dice, eats war machines, and plays mind games with your opponent. You only need to have a good phase once in order for your opponent to over estimate its effectiveness. With the +3 dice from Arkhan’s staff, I almost never had a magic phase containing less then 10 power dice.

Necrosphinx
-It’s a warsphinx that flies, how cool is that?! He’s the ultimate mage hunter and can easily hold up a unit for the entire game. His job is only slightly out of phase with the warsphinx in that he’s not an all out unit killer. He’s more of a scalpel. Also, I noticed that he was usually the first thing my opponent’s artillery targeted first. Which I don’t mind as I honestly think that the casket/warsphinx are more important.

Overall, I’m quite a fan of the Tomb King’s book. It provides some play styles very different from most armies and offers good magic. One of my opponents commented on how strange it was to see a 2200 point army with only 50 models, which some armies have in only a single unit.

These days it seems like most units have diffused threat densities. What I mean is that a block of 40 bloodletters with a herald is a huge threat, but the potency of the unit is spread over its entire frontage. If you were only to engage 4 bloodletters at a time, then the unit becomes a lot more manageable. Our sphinx have a pretty high threat density. They may not be the most dangerous model around, but when you engage them even with a single model, they can bring all of their power to bear. This is what I like about our monsters; they may not be the strongest, but you are only ever fighting against a fraction of your opponent’s strength with all of yours. So much about Tomb Kings has always been about setting up ideal charges, and I believe that that is made easier when your threats are contained in such compact models.

Ever since Adepticon, I have been mulling over my list. Tweaking it here and there, swapping this for that, and so on and so forth. Really, I can not see any ‘improvement’ to my list without changing its entire play style (as in a lvl 4 light and no sphinx, or few sphinx and a lot of knights). I think that the list I have currently is a solid list and that it simply needs more playtime to help it mature.

I guess I’ll simply have to wait and see how it goes.