In the world of tabletop wargaming, where there are typically two armies amassed against each other in cinematic fashion, one of the elements of the game that is so oft ignored is terrain. When you have great terrain, you don't think much of it, but when its bad (or non-existent) its all you can think about and, I know for me, that it can completely break the immersion in the game.
So, why is it that we don't simply use felt cut outs to represent terrain, with different colour felt representing different heights or types of terrain?
There's something truly epic about two painted armies on a painted table forging a story and a legendary tale of battle. I think that it captures our imagination and our passion for the hobby. It's the reason why we spend hours at the painting desk working as hard as we can to make our miniatures look as great as we can. But while we pour so much time into armies, terrain is often neglected. And I can understand why. When you finish a piece of terrain, it doesn't add to any of your armies. It doesn't make your list more competitive. And for a lot of people, they have no need to paint terrain. They might have a buddy who has a set of terrain, or there might be a local store or club that provides tables to play on.
But terrain is something that has landed squarely in my crosshairs in the last few weeks. Having my own studio, one of the things I am determined to have is beautiful, cinematic tables. I'm using primarily Citadel terrain, and I've begged, borrowed and bargained my way into possession of several out of production pieces that I've been after for ages. The first table that I'm working on is a Ruined Temple desert table, and I have to say, I was not expecting to be investing as much time as I have been into each piece. There is just so much detail, and I don't want to make a half-hearted effort and create a less-that-my-best product.
In Age of Sigmar, terrain is more than just a few scattered ruins and forests. When I first started playing Sigmar, I pretty much completely ignored the mysterious terrain table, seeing it as nothing more than an over-complication; something that would slow down the game. But as I've become more experienced and more invested in the game, I've come to realise how important mysterious terrain is to the game. It changes the table from a flat board with a few obstacles into a battlefield into a landscape that can actively influence the battle in huge ways. Savvy generals must learn to use the battlefield to their advantage, while also weighing up tactical decisions that surround some of the less… safe… pieces of terrain.
I'm a huge fan of having at least one or two Line-of-Sight blocking terrain on the table as well, to keep people on their toes, and making sure that players are thinking a turn ahead with positions like where they want their casters and missile troops to be, as well as support characters and wizards to unbind spells, so on and so forth.
Do you like playing on dense tables or sparse, open landscapes? Do you believe that Line-of-Sight blocking terrain is an essential part of the game or a hinderance?
Let me know.
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
Monday 18 December 2017
Monday 11 December 2017
#113: Age of Sigmar Battle Report - 2000 points Clan Pestilens Vs. Wanderers (Starstrike)
Having not taken my rats out for weeks, I figured it was about time to throw down, and who else to face but my old rivals, the Wanderers. I took my 1600 point tournament list from the recent event at the city store and used it as my foundation for the 2000k list. The real dilemma was how to spend those extra 400 points. I toyed with an Arch Warlock and 40 Monks, or even a Warpseer and 20 Monks, but in the end I decided to try out two units that I've never fielded before; a Verminlord Deceiver and 5 Plague Censor Bearers. I think Skitterleap adds some much need mobility to the army, and gives me a lethal character assassin!
Verminlord Corruptor (General, Vexler's Shroud, Verminous Valour)
Plague Furnace (Liber Bubonicous)
Plague Priest
Plague Priest
40 Plague Monks
20 Plague Monks
20 Plague Monks
5 Plague Censor Bearers
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
Verminlord Deceiver (Allies, unpainted)
Congregation of Filth (Warscroll Battalion)
My opponent was bringing a similar list to our last clash, with the addition of a rather large, tenacious ally.
Nomad Prince (General)
Spellweaver
Waywatcher
30 Glade Guard
30 Glade Guard
10 Eternal Guard
5 Sisters of the Thorn
30 Wildwood Rangers
Annointed of Asuryan on Frostheart Phoenix (Allies)
I knew I was going to be outmanoeuvred, but I'd learnt a lot from our last game, and I was going to put up a much harder fight than I did in the past. I knew that to come out on top, I was going to need to keep pressure up on my opponent, and play hard for the objectives.
Being very aware that I only had two models holding the far objective, I knew I had to do something about the big unit of Glade Guard. Conveniently enough, my Furnace continued its affinity with the Great Plagues, unleashing the Undulant Scourge upon them, killing 10, before charging in and disintegrating the rest of the unit. The Deceiver didn't need to lift a finger.
The Waywatcher had Wandered the Paths and held down the right hand objective...
Verminlord Corruptor (General, Vexler's Shroud, Verminous Valour)
Plague Furnace (Liber Bubonicous)
Plague Priest
Plague Priest
40 Plague Monks
20 Plague Monks
20 Plague Monks
5 Plague Censor Bearers
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
Verminlord Deceiver (Allies, unpainted)
Congregation of Filth (Warscroll Battalion)
My opponent was bringing a similar list to our last clash, with the addition of a rather large, tenacious ally.
Nomad Prince (General)
Spellweaver
Waywatcher
30 Glade Guard
30 Glade Guard
10 Eternal Guard
5 Sisters of the Thorn
30 Wildwood Rangers
Annointed of Asuryan on Frostheart Phoenix (Allies)
I knew I was going to be outmanoeuvred, but I'd learnt a lot from our last game, and I was going to put up a much harder fight than I did in the past. I knew that to come out on top, I was going to need to keep pressure up on my opponent, and play hard for the objectives.
I deployed heavily on the left hand side of the table, with the the Catapult parked close enough to the back corner so as to zone it out if any elves decided to traverse the board edges. The rest of my army was more central, while giving the Mystical Terrain in my centre right tile a wide berth.
My right flank was definitely my weaker side. With the catapult being guarded only by a Priest and twenty monks. My opponent deployed in several overlapping ranks, making sure that all units were close enough to a board edge to be able to Wander the Paths. The Phoenix deployed centrally and the Wanderer characters all set up in the woods on the hill, with enough spread that I wasn't able to sneak my Deceiver behind the main battle line.
Beating my opponent by a single drop, I took first turn. I knew that if my opponent took first turn, key elements of my army would die before I was able to do anything with them, and a double turn in this scenario was not going to win me the game. So I took first and wasted no time in pushing forward. My plan was to push a unit onto the possible landing spot of the middle line objective, meaning that my opponent would have to decide which site he wanted to contest before he knew which was the right one. It forced my opponent to be reactive, rather than controlling the board early-game and the pace of play. And it meant, that no matter where the first Objective dropped, it would probably be in my control. Both Priests cast Pestilent Breath into empty space in hopes of triggering a Greath Plague, but with no luck. The Furnce cast Rabid Fever on both nearby units of Monks thanks to the Liber, and triggered the Neverplague, removing all danger from Prayer casting for the rest of the game. Excellent! The big unit of forty was also blessed with the Corruptor's command ability, giving them an extra attack each.
On the right flank, the twenty monks and the Priest followed suit, running as fast as they could toward the possible landing sight. The Deceiver Skitterleapt onto the far right flank to threaten the huge unit of Glade Guard. I chose the right flank, as the left had a huge unit of Rangers that would have made a mess of him, and his -2 to hit in shooting made the Glade Guard all but useless against him. The Catapult trundled forward a few inches to make range…
The Catapults went to work and showed just how brutal they can be, killing twelve Wildwood Rangers and eight Glade guard. This was perfect, as not only did it put a big hit on the opponent, it drew a lot of attention to the war machines, making sure that my opponent knew they couldn't be ignored.
My only other move for the turn was to charge my Deceiver into the Glade Guard in the corner. He only managed to kill four, which was a little disappointing.
The elves wasted no time in pushing forward, Wildwood Rangers creating an imposing screen in front of the Glade Guard and Sisters of the Thorn. The play for turn one was pretty apparent from the Hero Phase. Mystic Shield and Shield of Thorns landed on the Phoenix, who barrelled straight up the centre of the field, eyes locked on my Corruptor.
His charge fell barely short, thanks to Bale-Chimes, and so he ploughed into the unit of Plague Monks instead. This triggered a bloody cycle of Monks dying, piling in thanks to Rabid Fever, and then triggering Shield of Thorns (which was ticking on a 4+) to start the cycle all over again. In the end, I lost 19 monks in a single round of combat. Rough! The Glade Guard under attack from my Deceiver Wandered with the Nomad Lord to the centre of my board edge, unleashing upon my left-hand catapult, bringing it down to a single wound. The Nomad Lord released his bird and finished it off in comical fashion.
After three drawn rolls, my opponent won the second turn, and wasted no time in going to work. The Eternal Guard moved up to screen their weaker comrades, while the Rangers Wandered after the general popped up nearby. Shield of Thorns failed to cast which proved to be vital for me, without mortal wounds bouncing back at me. Glade Guard continued to pepper the central monks on the hill with arrows, and I removed casualties to take them out of combat with the Phoenix. This proved to be a mistake, as they weren't in as much danger as when Thorns was on, and it left the Phoenix free in the charge phase to cut sick.
The all important first objective landed on the right flank, and the Wildwood Rangers responded, leaping over, and hoping for a long charge on the Monks to bring them into range to contest it. The archers unleashed another volley, their arcane Bodkins stripping wounds off the Corruptor with contemptuous ease, despite his defensive options. The Waywatcher wandered the paths into my back right corner, and unleashed on the Catapult, only causing three wounds.
The Rangers made an 11" charge, and just butchered the monks, with the last five falling to Battleshock. He claimed that objective for two points.
Thanks to my mistake with removing casualties from the Monks, the Annointed found himself in a position to launch into the Corruptor and just make a mess of him. Dice were hot and the Corruptor was cold. And dead. Mostly dead…
I knew that I had to make the most of the opportunity to try and bring the big bird down for the brief moment while he didn't have any buffs on him, so I went to work. The Priest that was about to have his face cut off by Rangers cast Wither on the bird, as well as using his once-per-game Plague Tome to add fuel to the fire that would hopefully melt the Ice-Bird-of-Death. Then all I needed to do was send in the Deceiver. He could Skitterleap over, make a short charge, and shank the Annointed in the back with a series of well placed stabs. Job done, right? Well, Snake Eyes for my casting attempt put a quick stop to that idea. This was a disaster. I needed this bird to die, as it was just moving from unit to unit, taking next to no damage. My Furnace once more cast Rabid Fever upon the monks and Plague Censor Bearers, only this time, it triggered another Great Plague! With the Phoenix being the closest enemy unit at the time, I chose the Bubonic Blightplague. I knew it wouldn't kill the Phoenix and bounce on to other units, but the change to do D6 Mortal Wounds was too good to pass up. I rolled a five, which I was extremely happy with, until the Annointed saved three with his mortal wound save. Super, duper…
My Plague Censor Bearers, with nothing else really to do until the other objectives dropped at the start of turn three, whirled violently into the spearmen. Knowing that I was going to be activating the monks fighting the phoenix first, I knew that the spearmen would most likely kill the Bearers before they could hit back, which is why they were the recipients of Rabid Fever. I think this was one of my first significant mistakes, as I pretty much threw this unit away, before I even knew if I needed them. Even if they did wipe out the whole unit of Eternal Guard, which was unlikely, I would be trading one unit for another and not actually gaining anything. Hindsight is indeed a beautiful thing. Perhaps I should have sent the Furnace into them, but I knew that the unit of Glade Guard at the back were still packing their Arcane Bodkins. So I chose instead to move him into terrain, which he can benefit from, as he doesn't have the Monster keyword. The last Catapult, living on borrowed time in the sights of the Waywatcher, unleashed a barrage of foul vomit upon the Glade Guard in my back line, hoping to cause similar damage, but was less successful. A few elves dissolved in the acidic stench, but not enough to inflict any casualties from Battleshock. The Waywatcher would waste no time in finishing off the war machine in his next phase. The monks went to work on the Phoenix, and started slipping wounds past its saves. It was only a matter of attritional time...
To nobody's surprise, the Plague Censor Bearers died a horrible, horrible death, and to everyone's surprise, the Plague Priest on the right flank survived against the Wildwood Rangers. To my joy, I snagged the double turn, after being on the receiving end of one, so I was ready to put my very contagious pedal to the metal. The second and third objectives dropped in the centre of the table, one in my deployment zone, one in my opponent's. Time to go to work. To protect my objective from those pesky spearmen, I launched into the Eternal Guard with my Priest, hitting the left end of the unit to try and draw them away with pile ins.
Finally, I was gaining back some control of the board. I had plans to Skitterleap, but the nearby Spellsinger used her auto-dispel to turn it off. The Deceiver took great personal offence to this, and made sure all of her blood ended up not being inside her with a few well-placed stabbings. The Furnace also barrelled down the hill toward the Sisters of the Thorn, obliterating four of them, but much to my dismay, one remained alive. This meant that, with the Deceiver not being able to reach due to the failed spell, I wasn't able to claim the objective.
On my home turf, I flooded the objective with my previously unharmed unit of Monks that had so far played no significant part of the battle. In a sheer stroke of luck, the last four monks from the forty man unit, with no buffs or prayers, managed to sneak through the last two wounds and kill the flappy bird of death! Huzzah!
On the right hand side of the board, I retreated my Priest out of combat, and near to the objective. Nothing was to be achieved by him staying in combat and getting his head caved in. This meant that I only scored three points this turn.
After a minor "ankle snapping" incident with the vermin lord, repercussions were swift. Glade Guard appeared from nowhere, unleashed Arcane Bodkins and did a grand total of six wounds. They pushed forward to try and contest the objective, but were unable to get close enough without entering combat with both the Furnace and the Deceiver.
The Eternal Guard finally pin cushioned the Priest, leaving them free to march upon my objective. Uh-oh!
In more movement shenanigans, the Nomad Lord and Way Watcher showed up and caused as much damage to the last sizeable unit of Monks, though it cost the Nomad Prince his life. Death by a thousand cuts!
The Rangers finally hacked apart the rabid Priest, clearing the right side of the board entirely of Skaven, and began to daisy chain toward my back objective. Things were beginning to slip through my fingers.
Which left the Rangers free to launch into the fray alongside the surviving Eternal Guard. Enough Monks died that the objective was the Wanderer's. We tallied up the scores and it was 22-21 in favour of the Wanderers! So CLOSE!
This was a nail biting game from start to finish. Objectives changed hands, units performed far better than they should have, while others choked. In hindsight, there were a few mistakes here and there. I could have risked Skitterleaping in the last turn and shanking the Waywatcher, at the very least denying him the ability to score, but there was no way to know that the Undulent Scourge would rip apart the Glade Guard, and I couldn't risk losing that objective.
At the end of the day, I think I played a much smarter game than I did in our last encounter, and was able to influence the game far more effectively. I felt I had enough pressure and enough tricks up my sleeve that I could keep my opponent in a reactive play style. He had enough movement shenanigans that he was able to react to everything I did, and keep pressure on in return. This was a very close game, and was on the line until the dying moments of the game!
I think I'm definitely going to keep the Deceiver in the list. He adds a lot to the list, and I'm sure that as I play more with him and learn his limitations, that I'll get my points worth. The Plague Censor Bearers, I'm unsure of. I'll play a few more games with them, but I think there's yet a place for them in the list, they pose a minor threat, that are capable of beating down chaff units or insignificant characters. I mean, not in this game… I threw them away and they died a horrible death. Whoops.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Gabe
Sunday 3 December 2017
#112: Masters Class 17 - Dan Saye (Dispossessed) Interview
I present to you my interview with Dan Saye, the man with more passion for beards than anyone I've ever met! Naturally, he's playing the beardiest army of them all; Dispossessed.
Allegiance: Dispossessed
Warden King (General, Grudgebearer)
Warden King
Runelord (Ancestral Pickaxe)
Celestant-Prime (Ally)
10 Longbeards (Great Axes and Shields)
10 Longbeards (Great Axes and Shields)
40 Warriors (Runic Icon, Double-handed Axes and Shields)
30 Ironbreakers
20 Irondrakes
Dan: So, what's in my list? I wasn't able to confirm that I was going the night before I had to send lists in, and I'd mucked around with a list. And then I was like, "This seems like an OK thing", because I'd been working on a Gutbuster army for Cancon next year, and then I was just gonna take the same list I took to MOAB. But I thought I'd change it up.
Gabe: Ok, let's kick this off. Was Dispossessed what got you to Masters?
D: I literally only played Dispossessed. I mean, I played them from Cancon until now, and took them to pretty much every event I went to.
G: You weren't ever tempted to go… I mean, I know you love beards. You weren't ever tempted to go Fyreslayers or Overlords?
D: I have a small Fyreslayers army and a gigantic Overlords army. But, but I dunno, I really like the Dispossessed. The other two are fun to play but I just love the Dispossessed.
G: So, it's a very "Dwarf" problem to somehow control the board in movement. Is that a big issue for you?
D: Yes. So, that's why "pre-GHB17", I always took Bugman and Rangers. Or Miners. Or both. Because having something that can pop up is really important. GHB17 was really good in a number of ways for Dwarves, especially the Ancestral Pickaxe, which is pretty much the best artefact ever. Being able to drop a Hero and a unit means that I don't have to take rangers or miners. I can take maybe a stronger unit, which usually ends up being the Irondrakes because it pops up and blasts something into oblivion. Or a big unit of Warriors. People usually expect the Irondrakes, so when a unit of forty dwarfs pops up on an objective, it's like, "Come and have a go!".
G: Do you think the introduction of things like the Pickaxe, offset the loss of all the compendium units that have dissolved into the void?
D: Yes. Umm, I used to play with Grudge Throwers and Bolt Throwers, because I thought they were awesome and I loved the models. So, I was disappointed to lose those into the compendium. But at the same time, as much as I disliked losing it, I was excited for everything that I gain. Kinda like, "Ah yeah, that sucks", but I came at it with the attitude that I was lucky to have used that stuff for as long as I did. I had a good run. GHB17 came out in time for MOAB, so I got to get in a good spin with the dwarfs. The only problem is I will always be out-dropped now, because Dispossessed used to have an amazing Warscroll Battalion that is now redundant.
G: The unit of Ironbreakers. Is there a reason…
D: They're cheaper. I used to run two units of ten and they were a pain for my opponents to shift. Then, I ran one unit of twenty, and they were awful for my opponents to shift. Then I ran a unit of thirty at MOAB, and no one killed it. They're brutal. They ignore rend -1, re-roll armour saves, passing battleshock on 1-3, and then the Runic Icon on their banner is just annoying for opponent's magic. At MOAB, I played against a Tzeentch list, and it was an awesome game. But across my game, I stopped five spells out of six, to the point where he just stopped casting at them, because there was no point. My little banner wavers were exhausted by the end of it, just screaming "No magic for you!". But yeah, that blob gets an 80 point discount for running full strength, where a lot are only giving 40 to 60 points off.
G: And twenty Irondrakes? You didn't want to go two units of ten?
D: No, only because if I choose to use them with the Pickaxe, I can take all twenty with me. As well as that, I think people expect the twenty Irondrakes to be tunnelling, and of the seven games I've played post-GHB17, they've only gone tunnelling three times. A lot of opponents set up in preparation for Irondrakes to be the pop-up element, and sometimes deploy very conservatively. So, when a close combat unit like the Warriors or Breakers pops up instead, it catches them on the back foot. Irondrakes pop up and kill something, but they inevitably die. I can sack that unit and maybe a few others with it, but if a unit of Ironbreakers pops up, they spend the rest of the game, just not going anywhere. In scenarios such as Duality of Death, it means I can pop up a hero on an objective surrounded by a shield wall of near-impenetrable armour.
G: So, at no point did you write up a list for one of the other Dwarf armies you own and consider dropping it in?
D: What other army is.. Well, no, I would have considered taking another bearded army, but Dispossessed got me there, so it's the Year of the Beard. And there's this big joke that I only play bearded armies.
G: Yeah, I know a lot of the guys I've interviewed so far are kind of taking the armies that got them to Masters, as a bit of a poetic end to the year, I guess. There's a couple that are mixing it up, but a lot are sticking to what they owe Masters to.
D: And I actually think that's how Masters should be. Take the list that got you there. That's my plan at least.
G: Good stuff. And how about your decision to ally in the Prime? Was that an easy decision?
D: Not at all. That Prime used to be thirty Quarrellers, which is sixty shots a turn. You can buff them up and kick out a horrific amount of damage. But I went with the Prime, because not only does he give me another movement option when dropping in, but it keeps my opponent guessing about when and where he's gonna enter the game. Say you've got that big unit of Breakers or Drakes popping up, you can bring the Prime in to support them, or split threats and drop on the other side of the board. I used to have a Knight Heraldor in the list, but I think the Prime offers a lot more flexibility and Mortal Wound output. I did have to rejig the list a lot to fit him in without losing too many bodies.
G: And leading into Masters, is there an Achilles Heel, that you don't want to face?
D: Realistically, my army struggles with armies that are fast. One of my big losses has been against Seraphon, and on Turn One, they had pinned me on my deployment line, and I couldn't move forward. So yeah, fast armies, only because they don't really need to pin me down for very long to stop me from having the turns to get where I need to be. The thing is, I have the Rend and the damage to break it, but if an army has speed and enough disposable units to block my movement, then I can't move fast enough to get onto objectives. That's kind of the reason the Prime is in there, just in case someone is able to beat off the unit of dwarfs. Then a big ol' Prime is dropping in on them. So, I'm converting a White-Dwarf-crewed Mech Warrior to be my Prime, because I refuse to field beardless models.
G: Is that going to be fully painted by Masters?
D: It'll have to be! I got three weeks. I was planning on using all eleven weeks leading into CanCon for my Gutbusters, but it wasn't to be. I'm very keen for CanCon as well! Masters will be fun. The one drawback for Masters for me is that its going to be the majority of people who have been playing the tournament circuit for the last year, so there's not really going to be any surprises. In the same way that I'm not going to be surprising anyone with Dwarfs. And like, Liam has played Sylvaneth the whole time, so he'll be playing Sylvaneth. Its very predictable. The Masters that I'm looking forward to is wrapping up the year, and having some fun with the boys. It's been a pretty crazy year for competitive gaming, and I'm kind of looking forward to getting through Masters, and then mucking around with silly, little Gutbuster lists.
G: Leading into Master's, do you have a personal goal?
D: I'd love to win three. I'm expecting to get two. I play a second tier army very well, because they're all I've played, but I keep needing to create surprises for people. When I play Sylvaneth once, and they watch me delete a Spirit of Durthu, they don't make that mistake again. Going up against the best players in the country, I think two, but I'd love three. But I also know that everyone there has either played me or seen me play, and as soon as people figure out the army, it's very easy to counter all of those little abilities. So, umm, so that'll be a trick. The other problem is that my army has a lot of tricks up its sleeve, but I usually need to use all of them to win.
G: So, you kind of have to scrape all those one percents.
D: Yeah, like, I never win games before turn five. I think I've won a single game before turn five. I don't win early, I win late. It's not like I use one or two of my tricks and it works, I have to use every trick I have and then cross my fingers and hope it's enough. I know it's like 50% Order, but I'd love to play something other than Order.
G: If you had five bucks on it, but who are you betting on to win?
D: If I had to put five bucks on it, I'd vote for me. If you don't have a good tip, go for good odds, and I'm like 100:1 to win this thing. But if I had to pick someone else; Dan Brewer has been a Bridesmaid, never a bride. I'd love to see him up there, because he's very good at what he plays. I think a lot of people will just take a net list, which is fair enough because it's obviously super-competitive, but I'd love to see an unconventional, unoptimised list thats played incredibly well. But then it all comes down to the draw as well. Players #1 and #2 could play each other in the first round and knock each other out of contention with a bad result, you know? It's hard to call, but ultimately I'll go me. Only because no one else is playing Dwarfs and for that reason, they're garbage. If you don't have a beard, you're naturally inferior to people who do have beards. People message me to tell me that half of their army have beards, and I'm like "That's like telling me that half of your army brought weapons to the battle. Good for you, haha." Then, as of next season, if you're not horribly overweight, you're not doing it right.
G: Pot bellies or go home.
D: Yeah, but my favourite thing about the scene, is seeing all of these left-field lists starting to emerge and do well. Ones you don't hear about on Podcasts and stuff, just cool home-brew lists that people have put tons of thought into constructing and playing. Seeing Liam's FEC, Dan's Skaven, there's so many people I'm not giving credit to. Ash making Gordrakk work in his Ironjaws army. I love to see non-standard, non-"competitive" lists do well. I don't mind who wins, I just want to see a non-standard, non-netlist one do well.
G: Cos I know that was part of my inspiration for doing Pestilens is that no one else was playing them. They had a Battletome and they had enough support at the time to at least die fighting, but they just weren't even on the radar. I was talking to Brewer a bit, and it sounds like he might be trying out Pestilens next year, but my goal next year, I was like "I want to be the best Pestilens Player in Australia." How hard, could that be, right? I'm like the only one playing them. I could come in at 80th next year and still probably nab Best in Allegiance. Then I get a message from Brewer, and he says "Hey man, I'm playing Pestilens next year." and I'm like "Dammit", haha.
D: See, I'm the top Dispossessed play, but I think I'm also the only Dispossessed player.
G: Exactly, it's fool-proof!
D: My goal next year will be to be the best Gutbusters player next year, but we'll see how that goes. I'm running lots of Maneaters! The models are amazing. Will you be at CanCon?
G: Not sure yet. I'm currently... negotiating terms. I would love to, but we'll see. I'm sure it'll sell out, because a lot of people haven't signed up yet. Did you have anything else you wanted to add?
D: BEARDS!!
G: Ha, I guess that wraps it up, then.
D: Grow a beard!
Allegiance: Dispossessed
Warden King (General, Grudgebearer)
Warden King
Runelord (Ancestral Pickaxe)
Celestant-Prime (Ally)
10 Longbeards (Great Axes and Shields)
10 Longbeards (Great Axes and Shields)
40 Warriors (Runic Icon, Double-handed Axes and Shields)
30 Ironbreakers
20 Irondrakes
Dan: So, what's in my list? I wasn't able to confirm that I was going the night before I had to send lists in, and I'd mucked around with a list. And then I was like, "This seems like an OK thing", because I'd been working on a Gutbuster army for Cancon next year, and then I was just gonna take the same list I took to MOAB. But I thought I'd change it up.
Gabe: Ok, let's kick this off. Was Dispossessed what got you to Masters?
D: I literally only played Dispossessed. I mean, I played them from Cancon until now, and took them to pretty much every event I went to.
G: You weren't ever tempted to go… I mean, I know you love beards. You weren't ever tempted to go Fyreslayers or Overlords?
D: I have a small Fyreslayers army and a gigantic Overlords army. But, but I dunno, I really like the Dispossessed. The other two are fun to play but I just love the Dispossessed.
G: So, it's a very "Dwarf" problem to somehow control the board in movement. Is that a big issue for you?
D: Yes. So, that's why "pre-GHB17", I always took Bugman and Rangers. Or Miners. Or both. Because having something that can pop up is really important. GHB17 was really good in a number of ways for Dwarves, especially the Ancestral Pickaxe, which is pretty much the best artefact ever. Being able to drop a Hero and a unit means that I don't have to take rangers or miners. I can take maybe a stronger unit, which usually ends up being the Irondrakes because it pops up and blasts something into oblivion. Or a big unit of Warriors. People usually expect the Irondrakes, so when a unit of forty dwarfs pops up on an objective, it's like, "Come and have a go!".
G: Do you think the introduction of things like the Pickaxe, offset the loss of all the compendium units that have dissolved into the void?
D: Yes. Umm, I used to play with Grudge Throwers and Bolt Throwers, because I thought they were awesome and I loved the models. So, I was disappointed to lose those into the compendium. But at the same time, as much as I disliked losing it, I was excited for everything that I gain. Kinda like, "Ah yeah, that sucks", but I came at it with the attitude that I was lucky to have used that stuff for as long as I did. I had a good run. GHB17 came out in time for MOAB, so I got to get in a good spin with the dwarfs. The only problem is I will always be out-dropped now, because Dispossessed used to have an amazing Warscroll Battalion that is now redundant.
G: The unit of Ironbreakers. Is there a reason…
D: They're cheaper. I used to run two units of ten and they were a pain for my opponents to shift. Then, I ran one unit of twenty, and they were awful for my opponents to shift. Then I ran a unit of thirty at MOAB, and no one killed it. They're brutal. They ignore rend -1, re-roll armour saves, passing battleshock on 1-3, and then the Runic Icon on their banner is just annoying for opponent's magic. At MOAB, I played against a Tzeentch list, and it was an awesome game. But across my game, I stopped five spells out of six, to the point where he just stopped casting at them, because there was no point. My little banner wavers were exhausted by the end of it, just screaming "No magic for you!". But yeah, that blob gets an 80 point discount for running full strength, where a lot are only giving 40 to 60 points off.
G: And twenty Irondrakes? You didn't want to go two units of ten?
D: No, only because if I choose to use them with the Pickaxe, I can take all twenty with me. As well as that, I think people expect the twenty Irondrakes to be tunnelling, and of the seven games I've played post-GHB17, they've only gone tunnelling three times. A lot of opponents set up in preparation for Irondrakes to be the pop-up element, and sometimes deploy very conservatively. So, when a close combat unit like the Warriors or Breakers pops up instead, it catches them on the back foot. Irondrakes pop up and kill something, but they inevitably die. I can sack that unit and maybe a few others with it, but if a unit of Ironbreakers pops up, they spend the rest of the game, just not going anywhere. In scenarios such as Duality of Death, it means I can pop up a hero on an objective surrounded by a shield wall of near-impenetrable armour.
G: So, at no point did you write up a list for one of the other Dwarf armies you own and consider dropping it in?
D: What other army is.. Well, no, I would have considered taking another bearded army, but Dispossessed got me there, so it's the Year of the Beard. And there's this big joke that I only play bearded armies.
G: Yeah, I know a lot of the guys I've interviewed so far are kind of taking the armies that got them to Masters, as a bit of a poetic end to the year, I guess. There's a couple that are mixing it up, but a lot are sticking to what they owe Masters to.
D: And I actually think that's how Masters should be. Take the list that got you there. That's my plan at least.
G: Good stuff. And how about your decision to ally in the Prime? Was that an easy decision?
D: Not at all. That Prime used to be thirty Quarrellers, which is sixty shots a turn. You can buff them up and kick out a horrific amount of damage. But I went with the Prime, because not only does he give me another movement option when dropping in, but it keeps my opponent guessing about when and where he's gonna enter the game. Say you've got that big unit of Breakers or Drakes popping up, you can bring the Prime in to support them, or split threats and drop on the other side of the board. I used to have a Knight Heraldor in the list, but I think the Prime offers a lot more flexibility and Mortal Wound output. I did have to rejig the list a lot to fit him in without losing too many bodies.
G: And leading into Masters, is there an Achilles Heel, that you don't want to face?
D: Realistically, my army struggles with armies that are fast. One of my big losses has been against Seraphon, and on Turn One, they had pinned me on my deployment line, and I couldn't move forward. So yeah, fast armies, only because they don't really need to pin me down for very long to stop me from having the turns to get where I need to be. The thing is, I have the Rend and the damage to break it, but if an army has speed and enough disposable units to block my movement, then I can't move fast enough to get onto objectives. That's kind of the reason the Prime is in there, just in case someone is able to beat off the unit of dwarfs. Then a big ol' Prime is dropping in on them. So, I'm converting a White-Dwarf-crewed Mech Warrior to be my Prime, because I refuse to field beardless models.
G: Is that going to be fully painted by Masters?
D: It'll have to be! I got three weeks. I was planning on using all eleven weeks leading into CanCon for my Gutbusters, but it wasn't to be. I'm very keen for CanCon as well! Masters will be fun. The one drawback for Masters for me is that its going to be the majority of people who have been playing the tournament circuit for the last year, so there's not really going to be any surprises. In the same way that I'm not going to be surprising anyone with Dwarfs. And like, Liam has played Sylvaneth the whole time, so he'll be playing Sylvaneth. Its very predictable. The Masters that I'm looking forward to is wrapping up the year, and having some fun with the boys. It's been a pretty crazy year for competitive gaming, and I'm kind of looking forward to getting through Masters, and then mucking around with silly, little Gutbuster lists.
G: Leading into Master's, do you have a personal goal?
D: I'd love to win three. I'm expecting to get two. I play a second tier army very well, because they're all I've played, but I keep needing to create surprises for people. When I play Sylvaneth once, and they watch me delete a Spirit of Durthu, they don't make that mistake again. Going up against the best players in the country, I think two, but I'd love three. But I also know that everyone there has either played me or seen me play, and as soon as people figure out the army, it's very easy to counter all of those little abilities. So, umm, so that'll be a trick. The other problem is that my army has a lot of tricks up its sleeve, but I usually need to use all of them to win.
G: So, you kind of have to scrape all those one percents.
D: Yeah, like, I never win games before turn five. I think I've won a single game before turn five. I don't win early, I win late. It's not like I use one or two of my tricks and it works, I have to use every trick I have and then cross my fingers and hope it's enough. I know it's like 50% Order, but I'd love to play something other than Order.
G: If you had five bucks on it, but who are you betting on to win?
D: If I had to put five bucks on it, I'd vote for me. If you don't have a good tip, go for good odds, and I'm like 100:1 to win this thing. But if I had to pick someone else; Dan Brewer has been a Bridesmaid, never a bride. I'd love to see him up there, because he's very good at what he plays. I think a lot of people will just take a net list, which is fair enough because it's obviously super-competitive, but I'd love to see an unconventional, unoptimised list thats played incredibly well. But then it all comes down to the draw as well. Players #1 and #2 could play each other in the first round and knock each other out of contention with a bad result, you know? It's hard to call, but ultimately I'll go me. Only because no one else is playing Dwarfs and for that reason, they're garbage. If you don't have a beard, you're naturally inferior to people who do have beards. People message me to tell me that half of their army have beards, and I'm like "That's like telling me that half of your army brought weapons to the battle. Good for you, haha." Then, as of next season, if you're not horribly overweight, you're not doing it right.
G: Pot bellies or go home.
D: Yeah, but my favourite thing about the scene, is seeing all of these left-field lists starting to emerge and do well. Ones you don't hear about on Podcasts and stuff, just cool home-brew lists that people have put tons of thought into constructing and playing. Seeing Liam's FEC, Dan's Skaven, there's so many people I'm not giving credit to. Ash making Gordrakk work in his Ironjaws army. I love to see non-standard, non-"competitive" lists do well. I don't mind who wins, I just want to see a non-standard, non-netlist one do well.
G: Cos I know that was part of my inspiration for doing Pestilens is that no one else was playing them. They had a Battletome and they had enough support at the time to at least die fighting, but they just weren't even on the radar. I was talking to Brewer a bit, and it sounds like he might be trying out Pestilens next year, but my goal next year, I was like "I want to be the best Pestilens Player in Australia." How hard, could that be, right? I'm like the only one playing them. I could come in at 80th next year and still probably nab Best in Allegiance. Then I get a message from Brewer, and he says "Hey man, I'm playing Pestilens next year." and I'm like "Dammit", haha.
D: See, I'm the top Dispossessed play, but I think I'm also the only Dispossessed player.
G: Exactly, it's fool-proof!
D: My goal next year will be to be the best Gutbusters player next year, but we'll see how that goes. I'm running lots of Maneaters! The models are amazing. Will you be at CanCon?
G: Not sure yet. I'm currently... negotiating terms. I would love to, but we'll see. I'm sure it'll sell out, because a lot of people haven't signed up yet. Did you have anything else you wanted to add?
D: BEARDS!!
G: Ha, I guess that wraps it up, then.
D: Grow a beard!
Saturday 2 December 2017
#111: Masters Class 17 - Chris Tot (Slaves to Darkness) Interview
Today, I present my interview with Chris Tot, a very well-respected Seraphon player who has shifted his focus to Slaves to Darkness for Masters. Enjoy.
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (General, Lord of Terror, Mark of Tzeentch, Ilodatrous Plackart)
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Chaos Steed, Banner of the Demagogue, Mark of Tzeentch)
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Chaos Steed, Mark of Tzeentch)
20 Chaos Knights (Mark of Tzeentch, Glaives)
10 Chaos Marauder Horsemen (Mark of Tzeentch, Javelins)
10 Chaos Marauder Horsemen (Mark of Tzeentch, Javelins)
20 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
10 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
10 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
Chaos Warshrine (Mark of Tzeentch)
Warscroll Battalion: Fatesworn Warband
Gabe: Ok, we'll just jump straight into it. Landing in third place on the overall rankings for the tournament season, is there one army that you can credit with you final position or did you jump between a few different armies?
Chris: Umm, so two of my ranked games were Seraphon, and one was with Slaves to Darkness, but all three were really different armies. Redland City GT was Slaves to Darkness; that was my most recent big tournament. One Seraphon event was using the Dread Saurian, which was a real game changer for my army. The other event, I was actually using a triple Carnosaur list.
G: Right, that's a bit different! Usually when you hear Seraphon, you think of all the wizards and big blocks of infantry. You don't see that many Carnosaurs in Brisbane. Certainly not three, but obviously it's performed well for you.
C: No, I think I'm one of the only people I know that runs Carnosaurs.
G: You rate them pretty highly, then?
C: I do but not for damage, which is a weird sentence to say, but do you know the rule "Blood Roar"?
G: Can't say I'm too familiar, no.
C: So, every time an unit within 8" of a Carnosaur takes a Battleshock test, I roll a dice, and if I beat you, you lose D3 models from the unit. So, I love fighting Ironjawz or Varanguard, or things of that sort, because my Skinks shoot, and my Carnosaur doesn't even have to be in combat to make them run away.
G: Oh gosh, that doesn't stack does it? If a unit is within 8" of all three Carnosaurs, do they all Roar?
C: Ha, no unfortunately. That was the first thing I checked when I first read the rule. I bought a Start Collecting Box and built it as a Carnosaur, and my first game was against Ironjaws. He killed one pig and the other two ran away, and I was like "Oh my gosh, this is amazing!".
G: Definitely. So, can I ask, was it a tough decision going into Masters whether you went with Seraphon or Slaves to Darkness?
C: I think it was. But what made the decision for me was transport. So, the only reason I'm not bringing Seraphon with me is because I did not want to risk a Dread Saurian on an aeroplane. Umm, eventually, I'm going to get around to pins and magnets and stuff so that I can take him apart and put him together, but thats a 'Future Chris" sort of problem. So, when it came down to practicality, it was pretty one sided, but in regards to what army I'd prefer to be playing with, it's definitely Seraphon.
G: You could say Slaves are a bit of a back up option in this case?
C: Yeah, I think so.
G: Alright, well, let's talk about your Slaves to Darkness list. Probably the biggest thing that jumps out is the massive unit of knights. Was there ever a question in your mind about sinking such a huge number of points into the one big unit?
C: Umm, yes and no. Initially, this list was a bit of a joke. I originally wrote the list with a big block of thirty knights in a 2500 point list, and was like "Oh, guys, how cool would it be if I ran this!" to my mates. I had Archaon on his horse back when that existed, two Chaos Lords on Daemonic Mounts, and a whole bunch of other stuff to buff them, but that list kind of died in the last Handbook. I played a list with twenty knights at RCGT, which was 2.5k, and I just really enjoyed playing with them. And it was really weird and fun to play with, because it has such a big table presence for a low model count army.
G: And it's quite an uncommon unit as well. I haven't seen Knights do really well in the times that I've seen them on the table. Usually, they're only units of five or ten, and if they can't smash off what they're fighting quickly, they just get bogged down in a battle of attrition. I'm fascinated to see a unit of twenty go at it with support, because it's a cool unit!
C: Yeah, I dunno, I don't particularly build lists to do a huge amount of damage. I've built this one to survive long enough to win on objectives. Do you know what the Fatesworn Warband does?
G: I'm vaguely familiar with it.
C: Yeah, so I have to bring nine Mortal Tzeentch units and a Mortal Tzeentch hero. So, that why I have the ten units in my army to make it a nice old "One Drop". So what it lets me do, is every weapon in the army becomes Rend -1. So, if it has no rend, it gets a point of rend on it. That's on horse attacks, marauder steed attacks, everything. It's a pretty handy thing to be in the army.
G: Does that benefit weapons that already have Rend?
C: No, so it only affects weapons with Rend -. The other thing it does is, every unit that comes in a multiple of nine, which is all of my Battleline with models dropping to make eighteen knights, nine marauders, so on, gets a 6+ Ward Save. Just, all the time. Every time I take a wound, I get a save. As long as I deploy a unit of nine or eighteen, I get that save for the whole battle. So, those two things, the big unit of knights and the formation, is what I built the whole list around, basically just to survive long enough to get me the win.
G: I noticed you've also got a Warshrine in there. Is that doubling down on those mortal wound saves?
C: Yeah, so when I built this list, all the Marauders were Warriors of Chaos. Three units of nine of them, because in the old handbook, everything was slightly more expensive for STD. And that was almost 2.5k. And the idea behind it was anything that could sit on an objective had at least two saves all the time. So, thats what I built the entire list around.
G: Do you feel like there's anything that you would have loved to have in this list that just wouldn't fit? A unit or hero that would have just made that combo pop to another level?
C: A War Mammoth. I would have loved to fit a Chaos War Mammoth in the list as well. If i took out all my Marauders and dropped the formation, I could have fit him in, but I couldn't get my hands on a model in time. Because a Mammoth and twenty knights would have been terrifying to run at people. Like, "pick which one you want to be annihilated by!". Because, one of them is going to reach you.
G: I was curious, is there a reason that you left out Sayl the Faithless, even outside of the Fatesworn?
C: No, so he's not Tzeentch, so he can't be part of the Fatesworn. And he doesn't actually speed the Knights up that much. I don't think I need him in this list at all, because of how I've built the list is to not be doing much in the first turn. My goal is for my opponent to go first, not do a lot, maybe move up toward the centre of the board. Then I'd like to line my knights up 3" away and charge as many units as I can with them. And they survive until turn three. In most scenarios, if I've held objectives until turn three, I've won the game anyway.
G: You talk about armies not doing much in turn one. Are you concerned about Alpha Strike armies? Lists that can get across the table in one turn and hit you?
C: No. Yes and no. I think I've got enough chaff that if I come up against another one drop army with a good alpha strike, I'll simply deploy really defensively. I don't particularly care if twenty seven marauders die, you know? But again, if I know that someone has a decent alpha strike army, I'll always take turn one, to get all my buffs off and get so spread out that most of the time, they can't really fit anywhere except their front face anyway.
G: Would you say there's a worst and best scenario for your army? Any scenarios where you go into it, knowing that it's going to be an uphill battle?
C: Ah, yep. Three Places of Power and Duality of Death. I've learnt the hard way that a Sorcerer Lord with five wounds and a 5+ save against nine Jezzails only goes one way. It was game two at RCGT against one of my best friends. Turn one, he put five shots into my Sorcerer Lord, four into the other. Killed both of them. Round two, nine shots into Lord on Daemonic mount. Killed him on the dot. And then he won the game in Three Places of Power 1-0, after I tabled him after that. Yeah so, those scenarios are a real struggle. The advantage is that my Warshrine is big enough to block line of sight, so not only is it hard to see him, but the shrine is also giving him another save! Startstrike is another really tough one for me, purely because twenty knights can't be everywhere at once. And if I get two objectives dropping on one side of the board and the third on the other, I just can't get to that third one, ever.
G: Is there a scenario in particular that suits your army perfectly? Where if it gets called out, you'll just be thinking, "Yes, this is my moment."?
C:Yeah, I'd love to go into Knife to the Heart, because I'm all Battleline. 18" away from each other with a 10" move, let's go!
G: Wow, that's interesting to hear! Usually, that's the scenario that make or break people's run at the podium, because armies either have the capability to get the major win or they don't. So, yeah, I'm surprised to hear that, but I guess it's a testament to the list and to Slaves at the moment!
C: Yeah, well, also I have thirty six Chaos Marauders that sit on one objective, all with at least a mortal wound save, across three units that sit on my home objective. Then thirty six horses running at you with all the heroes. Like, I'm gonna be hitting you quite hard. And because all Battleline deploys 18" away, all of my Battleline is gonna be hitting you straight away, and with a one drop army, theres nothing you can really do other than hope that your chaff survives long enough. So that's definitely my best ones. Probably the other one is Battle for the Pass. Because my knights take up the entire board.
G: Is there an answer in your list for something like a Star Drake or one of those "big bad" units?
C: Against a Stardrake, I think my only option if to win on objectives. I think that's the only way I beat a list like that. Because I can't reach. Like, I just can't do it. I just get picked apart and pinned down by the creatures. And if I try and fight it, I think I'll kill myself before I kill it. Yeah, and so what I found is the best option is to not attack at all. Just sit there, take the damage, accept it as what's happened and then retreat out of combat. And either that monster follows me, in which case my 680 points has become obsolete to a Stardrake's 500+ points, and I consider that, all things considered, a relatively even trade. Considering my knights can be fighting multiple things at once, whereas a Star Drake is just one model. And when my Knights have a board presence of 48" when I line them up, they have a far bigger impact on the board than a single model does.
G: Is there an Allegiance or a list that you really don't want to face? Say, you're at Master's and you can veto having to fight one list, what would it be? Would that be Stormcast?
C: It would actually be Tim Macdivitt's list, yeah. Because I've built this army to combat shooting armies; things like a double Kunnin' Rukk list, Kharadron Overlords, those sort of "I'll table you" types of armies, and I've built it to counter that. I've built it to deal with a Mortal-wound-heavy Tzeentch style list as well, because both of those tend to have either a lot of shots that don't do any rend, in which case my 3+, 3+, 5+, 6+, 6+ should handle it, or its mortal wounds wounds where I still get multiple saves. And something like twenty mortal wounds is not that significant to my army. Because, the Knights have 54 wounds with three saves against it.
G: Which is more than what a lot of people can say.
C: Yeah, so a Skryre pop up army, the double Gautfyre build; I theory crafted, and if 15 Stormfiends do all 6's for their warp fire projectors, I still have four knights alive. And then, considering averages for rolls and averages for all the saves, I'll theoretically lose 7 knights to that first onslaught. Yeah, then eleven Knights get to hammer back into units that are actually very squishy.
G: Yeah, because once you actually start punching on with Stormfiends, they can go down pretty hard against certain units.
C: Yep. What I was finding was that twenty Skinks will get into three storm fiends in combat, and actually come out on top. It feels like it shouldn't be happening, because they're skinks!
G: I'll ask, going into Masters, do you have a personal goal? Are you looking for the top spot, are you looking to win more than you lose, is there an ideal spot you'd like to finish?
C: Look, I think everyone attending would love to say that their ideal finish would be 1st place, that goes without saying. A realistic finish? I'd love to say top five. I'd be really happy with top five, considering the quality of players going. The other thing, probably, and it goes without saying is, to have five good games. Like, I know all the guys going up and almost all of them are just absolute legends, and I've played most of them before, and they've been fun games. So, I'd love to just relive those really fun memories. Yeah.
G: And if you can't pick yourself, who do you think will win Masters? If you had to put five bucks on it...
C: Five whole dollars! Haha, I can afford that. Ah, thats a really tough question. Look, there's definitely someone I'd like to see win, and that's Dan Brewer with his Skaven. He plays a non-Skryre, rare army, and I'd love to see an off-radar army like that win. Or, whoever comes in and just makes a clean sweep of the event. I'd love to see Clint playing for the win! I can just imagine Jesse's face. Those are the two people that I'd love to see win. In all seriousness, I'd vote Dan. But I think it would be hilarious to see Clint win.
G: Wouldn't that be a fairytale finish. Well, mate. That pretty much wraps up everything I had to ask you. I've got to say, it's definitely a list I wasn't expecting to see. It's been not a bizarre mix, but definitely a very eclectic mix of lists attending the event this year.
C: Yeah, I think looking at my list, obviously I can see very clearly what I've designed it to do, where often people look at it and see the opposite. They see twenty knights and think "Oh, that's a lot of damage". But I see twenty knights, and think "That'll last four turns". They're Bravery 11, when they have the Sorcerer Lord around. Both sorcerers are on horseback, so they pretty much stalk my unit of knights, because they have the same movement as them.
G: Here's the hardest question of all. Will you have everything painted by the event?
C: So, I've painted everything except my Marauders. And my Marauders… I'm so unmotivated to do them.
G: Are they the actual Marauder models or are you using acolytes?
C: No, they're the actual Marauder sculpts.
G: Oh, no!
C: Yeah, what I want to do eventually when I get them painted, is to use them as Acolytes just to annoy everyone.
G: Yes! Because you see it a lot done the other way round, where people use Acolytes as Marauders, because the models are just so far superior in quality. I remember when I first got into the hobby, and I thought the Marauder models were amazing, but they are reeeaaally starting to show their age! A whole unit of tanked-up, roided, He-Man-looking bros!
C: Yeah. I have the Marauders about 70% painted. I haven't done any proper highlighting on them yet. Haven't done any freehand on them either, which is something that I've done with a lot of my stuff. A lot of converting and free hand; I've gone to a lot of effort with this army. Like, my Chaos Warshrine was converted using the Great Beast of Gorgoroth, which is a Lord of the Rings model. And so, it's very different to what people are used to. I've gone all out to make the army look really nice. And so, in my mind, I would love the get all of the Marauders up to that standard as well. I mean, they're already at six or seven colours, and are table-top ready, but I would feel like I'm cheating myself if I did!
G: Well, mate. I hope that Master's is a great event, hope you do well, and can't wait to see the results!
C: Yeah, thank you heaps for this, mate.
G: Thank you for taking time out of your evening for me mate, I know it's a busy time of year, so I appreciate that. Appreciate you setting aside time and giving me half an hour of your life. But we'll wrap it up there, mate. Thanks again and have a good one.
C: Cheers, bye.
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (General, Lord of Terror, Mark of Tzeentch, Ilodatrous Plackart)
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Chaos Steed, Banner of the Demagogue, Mark of Tzeentch)
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Chaos Steed, Mark of Tzeentch)
20 Chaos Knights (Mark of Tzeentch, Glaives)
10 Chaos Marauder Horsemen (Mark of Tzeentch, Javelins)
10 Chaos Marauder Horsemen (Mark of Tzeentch, Javelins)
20 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
10 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
10 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
Chaos Warshrine (Mark of Tzeentch)
Warscroll Battalion: Fatesworn Warband
Gabe: Ok, we'll just jump straight into it. Landing in third place on the overall rankings for the tournament season, is there one army that you can credit with you final position or did you jump between a few different armies?
Chris: Umm, so two of my ranked games were Seraphon, and one was with Slaves to Darkness, but all three were really different armies. Redland City GT was Slaves to Darkness; that was my most recent big tournament. One Seraphon event was using the Dread Saurian, which was a real game changer for my army. The other event, I was actually using a triple Carnosaur list.
G: Right, that's a bit different! Usually when you hear Seraphon, you think of all the wizards and big blocks of infantry. You don't see that many Carnosaurs in Brisbane. Certainly not three, but obviously it's performed well for you.
C: No, I think I'm one of the only people I know that runs Carnosaurs.
G: You rate them pretty highly, then?
C: I do but not for damage, which is a weird sentence to say, but do you know the rule "Blood Roar"?
G: Can't say I'm too familiar, no.
C: So, every time an unit within 8" of a Carnosaur takes a Battleshock test, I roll a dice, and if I beat you, you lose D3 models from the unit. So, I love fighting Ironjawz or Varanguard, or things of that sort, because my Skinks shoot, and my Carnosaur doesn't even have to be in combat to make them run away.
G: Oh gosh, that doesn't stack does it? If a unit is within 8" of all three Carnosaurs, do they all Roar?
C: Ha, no unfortunately. That was the first thing I checked when I first read the rule. I bought a Start Collecting Box and built it as a Carnosaur, and my first game was against Ironjaws. He killed one pig and the other two ran away, and I was like "Oh my gosh, this is amazing!".
G: Definitely. So, can I ask, was it a tough decision going into Masters whether you went with Seraphon or Slaves to Darkness?
C: I think it was. But what made the decision for me was transport. So, the only reason I'm not bringing Seraphon with me is because I did not want to risk a Dread Saurian on an aeroplane. Umm, eventually, I'm going to get around to pins and magnets and stuff so that I can take him apart and put him together, but thats a 'Future Chris" sort of problem. So, when it came down to practicality, it was pretty one sided, but in regards to what army I'd prefer to be playing with, it's definitely Seraphon.
G: You could say Slaves are a bit of a back up option in this case?
C: Yeah, I think so.
G: Alright, well, let's talk about your Slaves to Darkness list. Probably the biggest thing that jumps out is the massive unit of knights. Was there ever a question in your mind about sinking such a huge number of points into the one big unit?
C: Umm, yes and no. Initially, this list was a bit of a joke. I originally wrote the list with a big block of thirty knights in a 2500 point list, and was like "Oh, guys, how cool would it be if I ran this!" to my mates. I had Archaon on his horse back when that existed, two Chaos Lords on Daemonic Mounts, and a whole bunch of other stuff to buff them, but that list kind of died in the last Handbook. I played a list with twenty knights at RCGT, which was 2.5k, and I just really enjoyed playing with them. And it was really weird and fun to play with, because it has such a big table presence for a low model count army.
G: And it's quite an uncommon unit as well. I haven't seen Knights do really well in the times that I've seen them on the table. Usually, they're only units of five or ten, and if they can't smash off what they're fighting quickly, they just get bogged down in a battle of attrition. I'm fascinated to see a unit of twenty go at it with support, because it's a cool unit!
C: Yeah, I dunno, I don't particularly build lists to do a huge amount of damage. I've built this one to survive long enough to win on objectives. Do you know what the Fatesworn Warband does?
G: I'm vaguely familiar with it.
C: Yeah, so I have to bring nine Mortal Tzeentch units and a Mortal Tzeentch hero. So, that why I have the ten units in my army to make it a nice old "One Drop". So what it lets me do, is every weapon in the army becomes Rend -1. So, if it has no rend, it gets a point of rend on it. That's on horse attacks, marauder steed attacks, everything. It's a pretty handy thing to be in the army.
G: Does that benefit weapons that already have Rend?
C: No, so it only affects weapons with Rend -. The other thing it does is, every unit that comes in a multiple of nine, which is all of my Battleline with models dropping to make eighteen knights, nine marauders, so on, gets a 6+ Ward Save. Just, all the time. Every time I take a wound, I get a save. As long as I deploy a unit of nine or eighteen, I get that save for the whole battle. So, those two things, the big unit of knights and the formation, is what I built the whole list around, basically just to survive long enough to get me the win.
G: I noticed you've also got a Warshrine in there. Is that doubling down on those mortal wound saves?
C: Yeah, so when I built this list, all the Marauders were Warriors of Chaos. Three units of nine of them, because in the old handbook, everything was slightly more expensive for STD. And that was almost 2.5k. And the idea behind it was anything that could sit on an objective had at least two saves all the time. So, thats what I built the entire list around.
G: Do you feel like there's anything that you would have loved to have in this list that just wouldn't fit? A unit or hero that would have just made that combo pop to another level?
C: A War Mammoth. I would have loved to fit a Chaos War Mammoth in the list as well. If i took out all my Marauders and dropped the formation, I could have fit him in, but I couldn't get my hands on a model in time. Because a Mammoth and twenty knights would have been terrifying to run at people. Like, "pick which one you want to be annihilated by!". Because, one of them is going to reach you.
G: I was curious, is there a reason that you left out Sayl the Faithless, even outside of the Fatesworn?
C: No, so he's not Tzeentch, so he can't be part of the Fatesworn. And he doesn't actually speed the Knights up that much. I don't think I need him in this list at all, because of how I've built the list is to not be doing much in the first turn. My goal is for my opponent to go first, not do a lot, maybe move up toward the centre of the board. Then I'd like to line my knights up 3" away and charge as many units as I can with them. And they survive until turn three. In most scenarios, if I've held objectives until turn three, I've won the game anyway.
G: You talk about armies not doing much in turn one. Are you concerned about Alpha Strike armies? Lists that can get across the table in one turn and hit you?
C: No. Yes and no. I think I've got enough chaff that if I come up against another one drop army with a good alpha strike, I'll simply deploy really defensively. I don't particularly care if twenty seven marauders die, you know? But again, if I know that someone has a decent alpha strike army, I'll always take turn one, to get all my buffs off and get so spread out that most of the time, they can't really fit anywhere except their front face anyway.
G: Would you say there's a worst and best scenario for your army? Any scenarios where you go into it, knowing that it's going to be an uphill battle?
C: Ah, yep. Three Places of Power and Duality of Death. I've learnt the hard way that a Sorcerer Lord with five wounds and a 5+ save against nine Jezzails only goes one way. It was game two at RCGT against one of my best friends. Turn one, he put five shots into my Sorcerer Lord, four into the other. Killed both of them. Round two, nine shots into Lord on Daemonic mount. Killed him on the dot. And then he won the game in Three Places of Power 1-0, after I tabled him after that. Yeah so, those scenarios are a real struggle. The advantage is that my Warshrine is big enough to block line of sight, so not only is it hard to see him, but the shrine is also giving him another save! Startstrike is another really tough one for me, purely because twenty knights can't be everywhere at once. And if I get two objectives dropping on one side of the board and the third on the other, I just can't get to that third one, ever.
G: Is there a scenario in particular that suits your army perfectly? Where if it gets called out, you'll just be thinking, "Yes, this is my moment."?
C:Yeah, I'd love to go into Knife to the Heart, because I'm all Battleline. 18" away from each other with a 10" move, let's go!
G: Wow, that's interesting to hear! Usually, that's the scenario that make or break people's run at the podium, because armies either have the capability to get the major win or they don't. So, yeah, I'm surprised to hear that, but I guess it's a testament to the list and to Slaves at the moment!
C: Yeah, well, also I have thirty six Chaos Marauders that sit on one objective, all with at least a mortal wound save, across three units that sit on my home objective. Then thirty six horses running at you with all the heroes. Like, I'm gonna be hitting you quite hard. And because all Battleline deploys 18" away, all of my Battleline is gonna be hitting you straight away, and with a one drop army, theres nothing you can really do other than hope that your chaff survives long enough. So that's definitely my best ones. Probably the other one is Battle for the Pass. Because my knights take up the entire board.
G: Is there an answer in your list for something like a Star Drake or one of those "big bad" units?
C: Against a Stardrake, I think my only option if to win on objectives. I think that's the only way I beat a list like that. Because I can't reach. Like, I just can't do it. I just get picked apart and pinned down by the creatures. And if I try and fight it, I think I'll kill myself before I kill it. Yeah, and so what I found is the best option is to not attack at all. Just sit there, take the damage, accept it as what's happened and then retreat out of combat. And either that monster follows me, in which case my 680 points has become obsolete to a Stardrake's 500+ points, and I consider that, all things considered, a relatively even trade. Considering my knights can be fighting multiple things at once, whereas a Star Drake is just one model. And when my Knights have a board presence of 48" when I line them up, they have a far bigger impact on the board than a single model does.
G: Is there an Allegiance or a list that you really don't want to face? Say, you're at Master's and you can veto having to fight one list, what would it be? Would that be Stormcast?
C: It would actually be Tim Macdivitt's list, yeah. Because I've built this army to combat shooting armies; things like a double Kunnin' Rukk list, Kharadron Overlords, those sort of "I'll table you" types of armies, and I've built it to counter that. I've built it to deal with a Mortal-wound-heavy Tzeentch style list as well, because both of those tend to have either a lot of shots that don't do any rend, in which case my 3+, 3+, 5+, 6+, 6+ should handle it, or its mortal wounds wounds where I still get multiple saves. And something like twenty mortal wounds is not that significant to my army. Because, the Knights have 54 wounds with three saves against it.
G: Which is more than what a lot of people can say.
C: Yeah, so a Skryre pop up army, the double Gautfyre build; I theory crafted, and if 15 Stormfiends do all 6's for their warp fire projectors, I still have four knights alive. And then, considering averages for rolls and averages for all the saves, I'll theoretically lose 7 knights to that first onslaught. Yeah, then eleven Knights get to hammer back into units that are actually very squishy.
G: Yeah, because once you actually start punching on with Stormfiends, they can go down pretty hard against certain units.
C: Yep. What I was finding was that twenty Skinks will get into three storm fiends in combat, and actually come out on top. It feels like it shouldn't be happening, because they're skinks!
G: I'll ask, going into Masters, do you have a personal goal? Are you looking for the top spot, are you looking to win more than you lose, is there an ideal spot you'd like to finish?
C: Look, I think everyone attending would love to say that their ideal finish would be 1st place, that goes without saying. A realistic finish? I'd love to say top five. I'd be really happy with top five, considering the quality of players going. The other thing, probably, and it goes without saying is, to have five good games. Like, I know all the guys going up and almost all of them are just absolute legends, and I've played most of them before, and they've been fun games. So, I'd love to just relive those really fun memories. Yeah.
G: And if you can't pick yourself, who do you think will win Masters? If you had to put five bucks on it...
C: Five whole dollars! Haha, I can afford that. Ah, thats a really tough question. Look, there's definitely someone I'd like to see win, and that's Dan Brewer with his Skaven. He plays a non-Skryre, rare army, and I'd love to see an off-radar army like that win. Or, whoever comes in and just makes a clean sweep of the event. I'd love to see Clint playing for the win! I can just imagine Jesse's face. Those are the two people that I'd love to see win. In all seriousness, I'd vote Dan. But I think it would be hilarious to see Clint win.
G: Wouldn't that be a fairytale finish. Well, mate. That pretty much wraps up everything I had to ask you. I've got to say, it's definitely a list I wasn't expecting to see. It's been not a bizarre mix, but definitely a very eclectic mix of lists attending the event this year.
C: Yeah, I think looking at my list, obviously I can see very clearly what I've designed it to do, where often people look at it and see the opposite. They see twenty knights and think "Oh, that's a lot of damage". But I see twenty knights, and think "That'll last four turns". They're Bravery 11, when they have the Sorcerer Lord around. Both sorcerers are on horseback, so they pretty much stalk my unit of knights, because they have the same movement as them.
G: Here's the hardest question of all. Will you have everything painted by the event?
C: So, I've painted everything except my Marauders. And my Marauders… I'm so unmotivated to do them.
G: Are they the actual Marauder models or are you using acolytes?
C: No, they're the actual Marauder sculpts.
G: Oh, no!
C: Yeah, what I want to do eventually when I get them painted, is to use them as Acolytes just to annoy everyone.
G: Yes! Because you see it a lot done the other way round, where people use Acolytes as Marauders, because the models are just so far superior in quality. I remember when I first got into the hobby, and I thought the Marauder models were amazing, but they are reeeaaally starting to show their age! A whole unit of tanked-up, roided, He-Man-looking bros!
C: Yeah. I have the Marauders about 70% painted. I haven't done any proper highlighting on them yet. Haven't done any freehand on them either, which is something that I've done with a lot of my stuff. A lot of converting and free hand; I've gone to a lot of effort with this army. Like, my Chaos Warshrine was converted using the Great Beast of Gorgoroth, which is a Lord of the Rings model. And so, it's very different to what people are used to. I've gone all out to make the army look really nice. And so, in my mind, I would love the get all of the Marauders up to that standard as well. I mean, they're already at six or seven colours, and are table-top ready, but I would feel like I'm cheating myself if I did!
G: Well, mate. I hope that Master's is a great event, hope you do well, and can't wait to see the results!
C: Yeah, thank you heaps for this, mate.
G: Thank you for taking time out of your evening for me mate, I know it's a busy time of year, so I appreciate that. Appreciate you setting aside time and giving me half an hour of your life. But we'll wrap it up there, mate. Thanks again and have a good one.
C: Cheers, bye.
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