Warpfire Ogres

Here is my list for Warpfire. Ogres. No magic, no shooting.

Tyrant - General, Great Weapon, Glittering Scales

5 Ironguts - Standard, Musician, Lookout Gnoblar, Standard of Discipline

3x 2 Mournfang - Heavy Armour, Ironfist, Bellower

2x 1 Sabretusk

I could have included an Ironblaster but that struck me as a bit "taking it too serious". So I'm going to line up and run at you with my 14 models.

Holy Fat Tummy, Batman!

Pete Lite Comp - The Skullcannon Conundrum

Most of the discussion around loosening the warmachine cap has centred on whether in conjunction with this Skullcannons should be 0-1 in a Daemons of Chaos army.

Now given that the Skullcannon is one fugly model I am not unsympathetic to that train of thought, however I do reserve doubts that such a restriction is needed.

Most of the "compers" cite the fact that Ironblasters are 0-1 under Pete-Lite and centre their analysis on a comparison between the two. Local gamer Hamish Gordon has written a very readable analysis on his blog which you can access here

However I don't think it is necessarily the best analysis to consider the unit in isolation. Rather I think you need to look at the situation as to what units add to the overall competitiveness of the army.

Here are my thoughts on Ogres and Ironblasters taken from the FOB comments:

There has to be variation between armies and Daemons unlike Ogres, for instance, are much more susceptible to Magic (ref: Hellheart, Dispel Scroll, Feedback Scroll, Rune Maw). 

Does DoC having two Skullcannons break the game? No. Personally I'd only use one as points are spent better elsewhere.

Does OKs having two Ironblasters break the game? A lot of people said yes last year, hence the restriction.

Now I have both dogs in the fight. I own Ogre Kingdoms and steered them very successfully in 2012. I will say that running two Ironblasters lifted them from a good army to a great army, their only real weakness being Warriors of Chaos during that time.

Recently I have played Daemons and used one and two Skullcannons. Neither army in the guise I ran it is as strong as an OK army with all the toys, limited to one Ironblaster.

Now that's not to say there may not be builds that are at this level of competitiveness. The Nurgle Beast build backed by Epidemis and two Skullcannons was cited by Hamish as potentially all-conquering. However I think we have to see this in practice rather than by internet analysis. Tournaments are not won purely based on Theoryhammer.

Should we see a string of wins by the 2 Skullcannon army and people flocking to build such an all-conquering build then perhaps that is the time to start limiting Skullcannons.

The von Trapps at the NZ Team Championships - Day One

A fortnight ago the inaugural NZTC was held here in Wellington. The championships were sponsored by this blog with the intention that they would become a regular fixture on the NZ Warhammer calendar.

The Spoils of War

The initial von Trapp Family was Jack, Tom and myself, along with Hagen Kerr. We wrote a really filthy Lizard list for Hagen which he started using at Skitterleap. Hagen's wife, Joy, is pregnant with their third child and unfortunately she was ill during Skitterleap, causing Hagen to withdraw. With her due date only three weeks after the NZTC, Hagen decided it was a little too close for familial harmony.

Enter Mal Patel. Mal is NZ's dirtiest Lizard player and was honoured to be called up for the von Trapp cause. So honoured, that he promptly forgot about it and went and booked a holiday for the same weekend. Softcock!

Well his loss was Joe Dixon's gain. Joe has been a regular guest at Chez Dunn when he and his brother Harry travelled from Nelson for Wellington tournaments. Now resident in Wellington, Joe indicated that it was the fulfilment of his life's dream to be part of the von Trapp Family with three Dunns.

Originally our intention was to run Daemons, Skaven, Lizards and one other. With Joe keen to run his Warriors and Jack having just finished painting 30 Corsairs those plans had to be amended. Tom kept his Daemons and I took one for the team agreeing to play Ogres.

Prior to the event we individually reviewed all the opposing lists and assigned a game result to them. This varied from 17 through 13, 10,7 down to 3 - representing the points we thought we could get. Based on these forecasts we approached the matchup process. In this we were helped with Jack developing an Android App that looked to maximise our round score based on these forecasts. It indicated who we should put up first etc in each particular round and then reacted to the other team's action. Where this was good is that it took all the emotion out of the process with the sole goal of maximising the team's round score.

For a runthrough I'll provide the team's scores and mention any points from my games that I remember.

Round One - Over The Hill

Jack (DE) 13 - 7 Dave Appleby (Skaven) - [Predition: 10-10]
Tom (DoC) 20 - 0 Simon Switzer (Dwarfs) [17-3]
Pete (OK) 9 -11 James Millington (WoC) [17-3]
Joe (WoC) 15 -5 Peter Williamson (HE) [17-3]

The rest of the team did really well in this round. I was cruising to a 13/14 point win having not lost any points until the bottom of Turn 5 when James had a comet land with an 11" radius. This took out 700 points and forced it back to a small loss. In retrospect I was probably a bit complacent about the effect the comet could have and should have paid it (and James) more respect.

We predicted a 60 point win and achieved 57 points - the deficit solely due to me.

Round Two - NZHammered

Jack (DE) 2 -18 James Brown (OK) [10-10]
Tom (DoC) 11-9 Glen Tibbles (WoC) [13-7]
Pete (OK) 15-5 John Wilenbruch (Lizards) [10-10]
Joe (WoC) 2-18 Antony Kitson (Brets) [13-7]

We predicted a small win here with some very tight games. Ideally we wanted Joe into the Lizards but his next best match was forecast as the Brets. In the end Jack had a little bad luck while, in retrospect, the prediction of Woc v Brets was wrong.

In my game, John had net list Skinks and played the "don't engage, blast with Banishment" strategy. It was very cagey the first few turns and John was unlucky not to take out my Maneaters. However he then got parts of his army isolated and I was able to pick up points while preserving my own.

Our prediction of a small win proved wrong and we took our only loss of the weekend.

Round Three - Team OMEN

Jack (DE) 10-10 Joel van de Ven-Long (Empire) [13-7]
Tom (DoC) 14-6 James Milner (HE) [13-7]
Pete (OK) 11-9 Sam Whitt (DE) [10-10]
Joe (WoC) 18-2 Glen Burfield [13-7]

Joe was the star here, picking up a major win. In my game versus Sam I was determined that if I engaged his three character bus of COKs then it would be with multiple units. I picked up his chaff and Hydra but lost both my Firebelly and BSB to Spirit Leech.

We scored slightly better than predicted and continued to stay in the running.

Round Four - Grumpy Old Men

Jack (DE) 7-13 Raymond Dick (DE) [10-10]
Tom (DoC) 11-9 Tane Woodley (Dwarfs) [17-3]
Pete (OK) 10-10 Mike King (Lizards) [13-7]
Joe (WoC) 15-5 Reid Pittams (DoC) [3-17]

Our matchups predicted a small win and in the end that's what we achieved. The plan was to get Tom into the Dwarfs but Tane played a very strong defensive game and blunted our main weapon. The shock was Joe getting up over Reid where we thought he would struggle. His efforts were instrumental in us getting the small win.

A Grumpy Old Man

In my game versus Mike - one we play every second week - I made a critical error when I accepted a challenge I shouldn't have - let's put it down to the fourth game on a long day. This held me up for two turns and meant I lost my big Mournfang unit and critically left Mike's ethereal Slaan on a single wound.

We achieved a small win which left ust in second place going into Day Two, nine points behind NZHammered.

Spikey Five Bellies on the March

At HomeCon III I took the following band of Ogres:

Slaughtermaster - Level 4 (Maw), Fencer's Blades, Glittering Scales, Earthing Rod

Bruiser - BSB, Sword of Striking, Enchanted Shield
Butcher - Level 1 (Beasts), Hellheart

9 Ironguts - Full Command, Standard of Discipline, Lookout Gnobbler
4 Ogres - Bellower
10 Gnobblers

4 Mournfang - Standard, Bellower, Dragonhide Banner
2 Mournfang - Bellower
Sabretusk
Sabretusk
Sabretusk
4 Maneaters - 3x XHW, 1x Great Weapon, Scout, ITP

Ironblaster
Ironblaster

My game scores were as follows:

Dawn Attack - Dave Appleby (Skaven) 19-1
Blood & Glory - Joel ven de Ven-Long (Empire) 20-0
Watchtower - John Tailby (Dark Elfs) 15-5
Meeting Engagement - Tom Dunn (Daemons) 15-5
Battleline - Hamish Gordon (Warriors) 14-6

So while I had 5 wins the games were closer than the scorelines show.

What Did I Learn:

1. In future I wouldn't take a Hellheart (in normal situations). I didn't like playing without a Dispel Scroll and while the Hellheart can close down a phase, it is simply too random for me to use as my Magic Defense. It's all about mitigating risk and the Hellheart is not worth a 25 point premium over a Scroll.
2. A Level 1 Beasts Butcher is next to useless. The default Wildform spell needs 10 to cast which means 4 dice in reality. A Firebelly gives you the Fireball spell which you can work at getting off on 2 dice. It also gives you some ranged firepower.
3. I much prefer Mournfang in pairs rather than in a four. The Dragonhide Banner is good but the investment means that your battleplan seems to centre on its delivery.

Highlight of the weekend was Smelly the Sabretusk killing Joel's Arch Lector, though I always enjoy a good old fail of the Look Out Sir roll against an incoming cannonball.

Disappointment of the weekend was Peter Williamson's High Elfs managing to hide from not only myself but also Tom's Daemons for the second event in a row. Don't make us come and find you!

The Oak Tree of Failure From Small Acorns Grows

Last night James and I had another matchup of his High Elves against the Ogres. james had made substantial changes to his list after Guardcon whereas I had replaced what I regard as a redundant Crown of Command with the Earthing Rod.

I could regale you all with stories of tactical brilliance but in essence the pivotal points in the game all resulted from errors. The errors were on both sides so I hope that James won't mind me going through them.

We were playing Blood & Glory and the first of these errors came at deployment. James put his Eagles on the 15" line when in retrospect there was no need to do this. When I got the first turn I was able to declare two 18" charges on his eagles with a combination of three units. As all of these had an 8" move and average 9" charge die roll, James had to make the tough decision whether to flee or hold. He held - and two of the three rolls gave me 10" on the dice. The unit of 2 Mournfang made short work of one eagle while one Sabretusk held the other up for three rounds before winning. What this did was give me a clear advance for my units with no redirectors in the way.

The key thing is that James didn't need to deploy at the 15" line. If he had deployed at 12" in then I could charge and it wouldn't have inhibited his ability to annoy the shit out of me with his eagles.

The second mistake was my target selection. James had two bolt throwers and these were a key threat to my Mournfang. Instead of shooting one of theses with my Ironblaster first turn, I tried to snipe his Lord. Yes, I killed two reavers (due to a successful LOS) but even then he still had enough in the unit for a future LOS. Turn Two I switched to shooting the Boltthrowers.

The third "facepalm" was again one of mine. I worked out what spells I was going to stop in James' magic phase and then realised that I had incorrectly imagined the effect of one of them. Shield of Saphery provides a 5+ Ward against shooting and in combat. For some reason I thought it was only a shooting ward. I'll put it down to the fact that High Elves always run Shadow, so James using High Magic was a dirty lowdown trick. The real message is "read the card in front of you, don't just assume". The only thing that saved me was the final mistake from James.

In charging his White Lions into my Ironguts he moved the unit outside the 12" bubble for General and BSB. This meant that while he remained Stubborn he lost the re-roll and General's Ld for two rounds of combat and subsequently failed his Fear tests. He rolled up the first time but in round two his Lions were exposed for the girly-men they are. To compound matters in the second round of combat I produced a moment of wargaming genius, hitting with 15 out of 15 attacks from my Ironguts and wounding 15 out of 15 times! Sometimes I'm just on top of my game. Being ordinary James saved the expected average six out of fifteen.

The point of the post - no, it's not to show how jammy the new Ogre dice are - is to demonstrate that the small things in the game can have big consequences. The easiest way to cut these errors out is to play lots of games (and not have a failing memory).

Battle Report - High Elves vs. Ogres

Last evening I had a game with James (Kenny) Milner before he heads up north to Guardcon. Given that there are going to be four OKs armies out of the 24 participants, we thought it worthwhile for him to have a run prior.

James' army is in the spreadsheet of Guardcon armies I posted yesterday but essentially is:

Lord with Null Stone
Level 4 on Heavens

BSB with Banner of World Dragon
Level 2 with Iceshard Blizzard and Comet

18 Archers
13 Archers
10 Archers
10 Archers

5 Ellyrian Reavers
5 Ellyrian Reavers
6 Swordmasters
A Billion White Lions with Banner of Sorcery

Eagle
Eagle

My Ogres were as follows:

Slaughtermaster with Toys on Maw

BSB with some toys
Butcher with Beasts & Hellheart

9 Ironguts with FC/Std of Discipline
9 Bulls with FC

Sabretusk
Sabretusk
Sabretusk
2 Mournfang - Muso
2 Mournfang - Muso
4 Mournfang - Dragonhide Banner

Ironblaster

So James' army is a very slippery eel.....lots of redirectors, a Deathstar with hooks and shooting/magic to force the issue.

Now we decided to play Battleline - because for all my brave words re scenarios - it's the easiest and quickest to get into. You will have to excuse the poorly focused photos but they will give you an idea.

Deployment

Here is the view of the Elven lines

Archers and Eagle on extreme left with Reavers (out of picture). Swordmasters then White Lions - Lord and BSB (separated by more than 6"), big Archers and Level 4 in Building then Archers, Archers + Level 2 and Reavers on right.

And looking from behind the Ogres

On far left is a single Sabretusk.Then Mournfang in a Blood Forest, the Bulls with BSB, Guts with Slaughtermaster and Butcher with Ironblaster behind. The Dragonhide Mournfang with another unit behind (eagle eyed readers will note that these look like two Tomb king chariots - this is correct. It is also because Charlie is a lazy minger who prefers to work and win the ATC than paint my next two mournfang). On the far right out of picture are two sabretusks.

Ogre Dice Have Arrived

If any readers are after some custom dice for their Ogre army then please let me know.

My order has arrived and the Great Maw is very happy with the result.

The dice are black 16mm with red pips. The Great Maw has replaced the "6".

I'm selling in blocks of 20 and have three sets left. They are $40 (AUD, USD, NZD) or GBP30 per set including postage.

EDIT: ALL DICE ARE NOW GONE

My New Ogre Kingdoms Dice

I have just had a new custom order of dice made.

These are 16mm black with red numbers. Instead of the "6" I have had the Great Maw put on them.

Pretty happy with how they have come out.

I have had some extra made so if anybody is interested in getting some them let me know. 

Loose Lips

On the weekend Mike and I had a game with my Ogres taking on his Beastmen. I changed around my list a bit – no Ironblasters, a 4 and a 2 Mournfang and a Thundertusk – for a bit of variety.


What we got was a great game where I had no magic from Turn 2. My Gutstar – with Slaughtermaster and Firebelly – got rolled by the Doombull and four Minotaurs (he’s all very brave when there’s no cannons, isn’t he?). By the end of Turn 3, Mike had his Minibulldoomstar left plus his WarGor Lord, a unit of hounds and a 5 man ungor block. I had my Bulls led by BSB, two lots of two Mournfang, two Maneaters and the Tusk. What transpired next was a lesson in keeping your eye on the ball!

The Wargor was facing Maneaters and Mournfang to the front and Bulls to the rear when the Minotaurs with DB went into the flank of the Mournfang. I had already removed a wound from the WarGor Lord who was running the Stubborn Crown.

Dark Blue = Bulls plus BSB
Pink = Maneaters
Light Blue = Mournfang
Small Brown = WarGor
Large Brown = Minotaurs with Doombull

What happens next defines stupidity! I opened my mouth without thinking about the consequences!

I challenged with my Bull Champion hoping to isolate the Doombull’s attacks. This was the worst thing I could have done as now Mike could accept with the Lord and take out all my other attacks.

It did not end well and eventually cost me the game 2230 to 1550 (after banners etc).

Never, ever challenge if you have any doubt about who is going to accept. And if you have no doubt then give it another quick consideration. I assumed the Doombull would accept and didn’t even consider the WarGor. In retrospect there was never a doubt as to who was going to grab the mantle.

I lost the combat. Maneaters ran, panicked the Thundertusk and left the flank of the Bulls exposed. The Wargor fought on for another turn until the Minotaurs hit the Bulls destroying them.

Lesson learned – think before you speak.

Hobbytime

No games for me over the weekend but plenty of Hobbytime while I watched Euro 2012.

Besides deciding that England make Greece look like Barcelona, I worked out that two layers of flesh is all my 90 Zombies are going to get. I will basecoat the rags they are wearing, teeth and wounds but that will be their lot. Then the standard wash of Devlan Mud or Agrax Earthshade. My current batch of 90 will be split into three blocks of 30 to preserve my sanity.

I finished the Mortis Engine. Previously the spectral effect was far too blue. That has been toned down with 3-4 layers of grey to white. Hopefully it will look a lot more ghostly and a lot less smurfy. The five hexwraiths will get the same treatment after the Zombies are done.

Finally I sat down with my box of Ogre bits and put together seven more Ironguts and seven more Bulls. I have about 5500 points of Ogres but less than 1000 points of Core. These extras will allow me to games up to 6000 points. Previously I have used the Ogres in a 4000 point tournie but that was back in 7th Edition where it was slots rather than percentages. I'm keen to run a big game later in the year. Now I have to whisper sweetly in Charlie's ear to see whether I can convince him to paint them.

Day Two At Horned Rat V

Into Day Two and after watching the Warriors win (Yay!) and Liverpool lose the FA Cup Final (Boo), I was more than a little grumpy. I was looking for someone to vent frustrations on and that was Sam and his new Chaos Dwarfs.
Game Four – Sam Whitt (Chaos Dwarfs – FW Book) – Blood & Glory

As I noted in a prior blog, I was concerned with playing Sam’s list for two reasons – first, unfamiliarity with the book and army, and second he had most of the toys. Where I thought he did have a weakness was in regard to mobility and in having no real chaff to control space on the board.

We both had Fortitude of 5 (General, BSB and two banners) so it required either of us to only get two items – one if general – to break the other and pick up 600 points. Both of us put both scoring characters in a single unit, my BSB forsaking his usual Bulls for the safety of the Ironguts, Sam’s in the Infernal Guard.

With so few drops, Sam went first after deploying back. In came the Kadii Destroyer to threaten my line of three units of mournfang while the magma cannon killed two Sabretusks. The Dreakquake Mortar exploded – even with its reroll – and one of the key threats was gone.

Then came what was probably the key moment of the game. I declared charges with two units of my Mournfang on the Destroyer. I then had the third unit charge a unit of Hobgoblins which if successful would free my Guts to also charge the Destroyer. Sam should have fled…..he would have gone off the board. I suspect he was concerned that it would have opened up a charge of my Maneaters on his Bull Centaur unit. However by holding it allowed me to get the Guts into the Kadaii bringing with them an extra +5CR on top of the +1 for charging. With +6 CR and a series of Str 5/6 impact hits before a further swathe of Str 6 IG attacks, the Kadaii was always going down.

After that my Maneaters and Mournfang cleared out the Centaurs and I started picking up points across the table. In the end Sam had his Lord and BSB left plus two Hobgoblins. I lost the three Sabretusks.

Win 20-0

Day One At Horned Rat V

My weekend started by meeting up with Tim Joss after work on Friday. Little did he know that when I said he could spend the weekend at mine for Horned Rat that I had an ulterior motive. It gave me a captive pair of hands to move tables prior to the event. Tim, Hagen and Tom helped me move the terrain and collect the tables so we could set up the hall Friday night. Thanks.


Late Friday Raymond the Umpire sent out a cryptic email telling us he had split people into one of four groups based on whether they had “Light” or “Dark” armies and whether they resided in Wellington or not (“Home” and “Away”). So being a Dark Hom(i)e I knew I could only be playing a Light Awayer in the First Round.

Saturday dawned and off to the hall.

Game One – John Murrie (High Elves) – Dawn Attack

John’s army consisted of two medium blocks of Swordmasters, big block of White Lions, a massive spear block, two medium blocks of archers and two eagles. He had a Level Four Shadow and a Level Two High mage plus a BSB.

My plan was to pick off John’s softer units – e.g. all but the White Lions and Swordmasters – and then attack them in the later part of the game. This worked well in that I quickly removed the archers with Maneaters and Bulls. I frustrated John by fleeing my Mournfang units (back into my Leadership bubble) from his White Lions and Swordmasters. He was hampered by poor charge rolls and I was able to get the Bulls behind his big Spear unit and then charged them with Ironguts. This deleted the unit and I was then able to multicharge the White Lions with 5 units (11 dead from impact hits). From here it was a relatively straightforward mop up of the Swordmasters.

Win 20-0

John won Best Sport at the event. However, I didn’t vote for him as he normally plays Dwarfs.

Game Two – Josh Kennedy (Wood Elves) – Meeting Engagement

Again a very favourable draw for the Ogres. Josh had three blocks of Archers, two blocks of Treekin, a Treeman, two Eagles, a Level 4, a BSB with HODA and two Branchwraiths. He deployed well back while I deployed as far forward as I could.

I was trying to monster one side of his army while ignoring (initially) the other. This had Maneaters threatening his flank Josh made an early error in that he moved the two Branchwraiths forward about eight inches in front of his archers. This allowed two units of Mournfang to charge and one to overrun into his archers. On the flank with the Maneaters, his Treekin were tripled charged by Bulls, Guts and Maneaters – the Guts failing to get in. As his Treeman moved over to intercept my Mournfang the Ironblasters opened up and destroyed him.

From here it was a mop-up exercise and my Mournfang were able to clean up the remaining flank over the last few turns.

Win 20-0

Game Three – Tom Dunn (Daemons) – Watchtower

By this stage Tom and I had made our way to the top table, in his case courtesy of two 19-1 wounds. I wasn’t keen on fighting his army – it is more mobile – and particularly in this scenario (30 Bloodletters including a Herald are impossible to shift from the tower).

I had control of the tower but had no unit suitable for occupation. Anyway, why give those bloodletters a charge first turn. I realised that there was nothing I had that could stop them entering the building so knew I was giving away 600 points. My hope was that Tom went in early so I could concentrate on the rest of his army. Tom didn’t. He moved the rest of his army to encircle me. I shot Billy Bloodthirster twice on Turn 1 but Tom made both his ward saves. On Turn 2 I got him which effectively cancelled out the Watchtower points.

The Ironguts charged the Bloodletters (sans Herald) and cleaned them out in a turn. One of my Ironblasters was mugged by two units of Furies and a Bloodcrusher while the Mournfang cleaned out a unit of Flamers. From here Tom played very well and managed to save the various parts of his army before I could get them. I did get the Horrors and the Herald but that was all. I charged the tower last turn but we both knew it was forlorn.

Win 14-6

So I had a very good first day finishing on 54 points. Tom was 3rd on 44. Sunday morning would see me battle Sam Whitt’s Chaos Dwarfs which were sitting on 52 points and had been scaring the bejesus out of all of his opponents.

Ogres for Horned Rat V

Last night I finished the new terrain pieces for Horned Rat and today new storage buckets for all my terrain arrives. I’m very happy with the way the new pieces came out and hopefully they’ll bring some visual variety to the tables. I’m hoping to pick up the trophies this evening which will be another job out of the way.


So three days out from the event and I’m guessing all the lists are in. I’m taking my Ogres and using the same list that I used at Equinox. I thought about using the list I’ve been running in prep for NiCon but decided to stick with the tried and true.

The list is as follows:

Slaughtermaster (General) – Level 4, Fencer’s Blades, Glittering Scales, Ironfist, Opal Amulet, Dispel Scroll

Bruiser – BSB, Enchanted Shield, Sword of Striking

Firebelly – Level 1 (Fire), Extra Hand Weapon, Dragonbane Gem, Ironcurse Icon

8 Bulls – Full Command, Ironfists

8 Ironguts – Full Command, Standard of Discipline

3x 2 Mournfang Cavalry – Ironfists, Heavy Armour

3x 1 Sabretusks

4 Maneaters – 3x Extra Hand Weapon, 1x Great Weapon, Scout, Immune to Psychology

2x Ironblaster

So thirty four models – smaller than one of my Skavenslave units!

Ogres - A Nicon Variant

Over the weekend I had two games with my Ogres, looking at a list to use potentially at NiCon. The NiCon restricts Ogres to one Ironblaster and six Mournfang (go figure) so my usual list requires some changes.

Essentially, I took:

Slaughtermaster
Firebelly
BSB

8 Bulls - FC
8 Ironguts – FC and Std of Discipline

6 Maneaters
2 Mournfang
4 Mournfang – Std, Muso, Dragonhide Banner
3x 1 Sabretusks

Ironblaster

Equinox Ogre List

I was asked the other day to post the list I used at Equinox.

It is my take on what is a reasonably standard build you’ll see playing in most countries. I’ve tweaked certain parts to reflect my playstyle.

Lord:

Slaughtermaster – Level 4, Lore of Great Maw, Fencer’s Blades, Glittering Scales, Dispel Scroll, Opal Amulet (388)

Heroes:


Bruiser – BSB, Sword of Striking, Enchanted Shield (154)
Firebelly – Dragonbane Gem, XHW, Ironcurse Icon (132)


Core:


8 Bulls – Full Command (291)
8 Ironguts – Full Command, Standard of Discipline (394)


Special:


2 Mournfang Cavalry – Ironfist, Heavy Armour (140)
2 Mournfang Cavalry – Ironfist, Heavy Armour (140)
2 Mournfang Cavalry – Ironfist, Heavy Armour (140)
Sabretusk (23)
Sabretusk (23)
Sabretusk (23)
4 Maneaters – 3x XHW, 1x Great Weapon, Scout, Immune to Psychology


Rare:

Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)

I sure others can come up with better and more efficient builds but after 30+ games I’ve found this is what works for me.

Ogres at Equinox (Part 3)

Game 5 – Ross Hillier-Jones (Warriors of Chaos) – Meeting Engagement


Ross’s army was on paper a horrible matchup for me. He had 2 Tzeentch Warriors, 10 Chaos Knights, characters (one sorcerer with Death) and two Shrines. It is extremely hard to get points out of and with two shrines the Knights have a strong likelihood of being invulnerable.

I set up a little back and to my surprise Ross set up even further back. Unfortunately for me my Firebelly dimensionally cascaded killing half the Ironguts. I took some shots at the shrines but didn’t kill them.

Ross decided he was happy with a small win and pulled back further. My option was to ping away with the Ironblasters but as the shrines retreated this became more dangerous if Ross decided to take a last turn character charge (two on disks). I decided not to risk the ironblasters and took a 180 point loss.

Loss 9-11

This left me still in the event 3 points behind Ross but 5 ahead of Tim.

Game 6 – Thomas van Roekel (Dwarfs) – Random Mission

Thomas is Dwarf player on the NZ ETC team and recently placed top 6 at Runefang. I fancied the matchup given I had more mobility than him and felt his army wasn’t matched well against my Ogres.

His list was big Hammerers, minimal Hammerers, 2x largish Quarrellers, minimal Miners, 2 Grudgethrowers, Cannon, Organ Gun plus Rune Lord, Dwarf Lord, 2 Slayers, BSB and Engineer.

Thomas offered to play Battleline but I politely declined thinking that in pretty much all the scenarios I had some advantage due to mobility (Watchtower/King of the Hill possibly excepted). In the end, Thomas rolled and we got what I hoped – Dawn Attack. My Ogres deploy well in this scenario (you have a 1 in 18 chance of having your Bulls and Guts on opposite flanks. The mobility of the rest of the list allows you to cover any other disparities.

Thomas also got good rolls but was banking on get at least one “2” to allow him to close the door on his warmachines. He didn’t get it and as a result I was able to scout my Maneaters into a threatening position. From the outset I was able to apply pressure on Thomas’ line and coupled with some good shooting and surviving a hit from a Grudgethrower on an Ironblaster by Turn 2 I was well on top. When I managed to bring in supporting charges from an Ironblaster and a second Mournfang unit on Quarrellers it was looking really bad for Thomas. This was compounded when his lord failed a LOS to an Ironblaster shot and died (taking with him the Master Rune of Challenge).

In the last 2-3 turns I pulled back to preserve points knowing I had a solid win. This strategy reflected my summation of the Ross-Tim game going on on the next table where Tim was clearly on top. When we totalled the points I had a 17-3.

Thomas had an uphill fight in this one and I felt that by compounding pressure I was always going to have the upper hand.

Win 17-3

Wrap Up

In terms of battle I finished with 5 wins and a loss. I was very happy that I had scored a total of 87 points which was enough to put me six points clear of Ross. So unless my opponents had had real problems with my Sports I felt I was in a good position to take out 1st Place. When the trophies were presented I was very happy to take the trophy home.

(or rather leave it in Auckland with Jack)

Ross finished 2nd in Battle on 81pts, four points ahead of Tim. I haven’t seen the rest of the results but suspect that Peter Williamson (Tomb Kings) and Raymond Dick were only a point or two adrift of Tim.

I had six very good opponents and enjoyed the games immensely. Having been pipped by two points for 1st at the only other Equinox I’ve attended, it was nice to go one better.

Ogres at Equinox (Part 2)

Jack and I headed out on Saturday night and had a fantastic Thai meal at "tusk" in Balmoral. best Pad Thai that I've ever had and I have a bit of a penchant for that dish.

When Neil and Peter Williamson got back from their fourth game of the day - a Team Challenge - they told us that it was an 8.00am start on Sunday. Yuck.

Game 4 - Tim Joss (Tomb Kings) - King of the Hill

I was a little surprised to see myself sitting equal 1st on 48 points going into Day 2. I put this down to the difficulty in getting very big wins due to the BP graduation.

Joint leader was Tim Joss with Tomb Kings. I knew he had blown away Mike King's Lizards with shooting on Day One. When I saw his list I realised why. He had 4 units of 10 archers, 2 units of 20 archers, a 40 man horde of Tomb Guard, 3 Necropolis Knights, 2 Sphinx, 2 SSC, Casket of Souls, 5 Horsemen, a Hierophant and Tomb Priest.

This was a very hard fought game. Tim went first and got off a 6 dice casket which I decided to let through. It destroyed a unit of Mournfang and then bounced twice doing nothing more. I hadn't realised it bounced but would have still let it through as I was keeping all my dice (and scroll) for stopping Smiting. With 85 shoots it was impossible to let that go off. Tim also destroyed an Ironblaster with the first SSC shot. Oh dear!

Over the next few turns I worked away at Tim's flanks killing his Horsemen with Sabretusks and a unit of bow with Maneaters. My remaining Ironblaster put two wounds on one Sphinx. Tim then had a charge on my Maneaters which was pretty importantant. He needed to roll "8" to get in but didn't get it and therefore had to pull archers back. In my next turn I charged the Maneaters into the Sphinx and mournfang into the flank of 10 archers which they blew away. They then had an overrun path into the flank of the Sphinx and rolled the required "5". Unfortunately for me this took them 1/2" out of both General and BSB range and they failed their Fear Test. I won the combat but Tim only lost one wound.

Tim failed a charge on Mournfang with his Knights - I fancied the matchup having fought it the day before - and this let me start to get into his centre with Sabretusks and the unit of Mournfang. I deliberately left a unit of archers in front of his Tomb Guard block alone as they were blocking their advance. The Sphinx went down and the Maneater retreated to the far board edge to protect his points. Later in the game Tim shot his SSC at it to get the remaining wound (and 217 points) and unluckily blew up the warmachine.

My Ironblaster destroyed the other Sphinx and then Tim tried a very very long charge with his Knights, again failing. Again I fancied this matchup. I knew that the Ironblaster was likely to survive - 5 wounds at To 6 - and I could then get something into the flank of the Knights. I pulled the Sphinx-beating Mournfang across and hear I made a critical mistake.

It gave the blocking archers a suicide charge into the flank of the Mournfang, freeing the path of the Tomb Guard into the Ogre Bulls. Again I thought I would survive this fight but I ended up losing by three. I failed both Ld 6 tests and ran. However the pursuit path was blocked by my Ironguts and the bulls got away and rallied.

I received the 400 Bonus Points for the hill and was 330-odd points in front on kills. This gave me a 13-7.

Win 13-7

On Table 2, Bail Moskovis' Vampires went down to Ross Hillier-Jones Warriors setting up a match versus Chaos in Round 5.

It's Tournament Time!

Bag packed, army in its case and transport to the airport all organised. This weekend is the largest NZ Fantasy event since the advent of 8th Edition.


Equinox has attracted a good field with the majority of NZ’s Top 20 ranked players plus the cream of Auckland gaming circles. I’m expecting it to be both a fun and competitive event.

The Composition system, after some initial concern, looks generally robust and nicely complements the recent “FluffyCon” at Battlecry. The move back towards the rulebook line of Sight rules is also welcome even if it does disadvantage my army (I use the larger Bull Rhinox as Mournfang Cavalry).

The mix of armies on offer has been covered in an earlier post. Suffice to say it is sufficiently different from the usual lower North Island mix to ensure a new challenge. Looking through the list of participants I have played only 40% of them before. That means that there is a high chance of getting at least three games against new opponents.

So how do I think I’ll go? Well I’d be disappointed to not make the Top 10. That’s largely based on the practice I’ve had with the Ogres over the first three months of the year. They are an army that can win big i.e. combat based but also lose big if things go wrong. That means that I’ll look to target an average of 13 points per game…..78/120. Anything more than that will be a bonus. I would be very very happy to make Top 5 but that would be dependant on a charitable draw and everything going right.

I’m really pumped for the event. Check back on Monday for tales of woe or hopefully glory. It’s a cliché I know but I would be happy to draw six great opponents and have six hard fought games (albeit with me winning all of them due to an unforeseen chain of lucky dice rules).

Roadtest for Army Case

This weekend is the first big test for my Battlefoam Army Case. My lovely wife bought me the case for Christmas and it holds my full Skaven army all in movement trays.

I purchased an Ogre fit out for the case with a pluck foam layer for my Mournfang. I do not have standard Mournfang cavalry. All mine are the larger Forgeworld Rhinox Riders. Five of these monsters fit in the tray I’ve customised.

Part of the attraction in buying the case was that it is FAA approved as cabin baggage on airline flights. Airlines use a formula whereby the three dimensions of a piece of luggage must total less than 46” to be taken on a plane as hand luggage. The Battlefoam 720 comes in at 40”. They have a larger case, the Air Pack which comes in at 45.5” but I don’t want to push things that close if I’m dealing with belligerent airport staff.

The other advantage the 720 has is that its trays remain upright when you carry it. This isn’t as important for 40k as it is for Fantasy where you use movement trays rather than individual compartments.

My biggest fear is that it will not fit in the overhead locker of Air New Zealand’s new aircraft. Jack indicated when he took his Dark Eldar north in a similar case he had to turn it on its side to fit in the overhead locker. Not such a problem with Ogres but I would make sure I padded out my compartments with tissue for the Skaven (so they don’t come off the movement trays).

Timely Reminder

On Saturday I had an excellent game with Mike and his Lizards. We played Dawn Attack using our Equinox armies in a hit out for next week.


I was able to keep my army together and bring early pressure on Mike who had his army far more spread. This led to me building a strong early lead as I cleaned out an expensive Skrox unit, both Salamander units and various Skink units in the first couple of turns. Things were looking very good for the Ogres as I turned my army around to create a pseudo-Battle for the Pass.

And then disaster struck. Mike picked up six dice for a spell and rolled Irresistible Force. He then resolved his miscast getting the Dimensional Cascade result. One Cupped Hands later and my Slaughtermaster, the mighty Spiky Five-Bellies disappeared into the warp.

Now I could have ranted and raved and cursed my bad luck at having a solid winning position pulled back markedly. However what ensued was a great last four turns where I battled against the Slaan’s magic assault to try and re-create my advantage. I thought I had done it when I got bulls + BSB + Ironblaster into Mike’s Saurus. However he made not one but two Insane Courage rolls. This effectively held me up and allowed him to get a last turn charge off onto my Ironguts. While his Skrox were unlikely to lose I didn’t expect them to win and stood to receive the charge. Mike won the combat by one and ran them down.

In retrospect it was poor play by me – by that I mean I should have fled the charge – putting a unit at risk I didn’t need too. It cost me 500+ points and gave Mike an advantage of about 100 VPs. If I had fled Mike could have re-directed into a second unit that would have got away by fleeing through the Ogre Bulls. In that instance I would have had to make a Leadership 8 test with a re-roll and would have preserved the win.

To me it was a salient lesson in not thinking things through and a good reminder before next week’s tournament.