It's been a long time coming, but it's finally, FINALLY here!!!
Maggotkin of Nurgle has kicked the door down to the Chaos party, and it bought rotten party pies to share! Games Workshop has given Nurgle all the love and attention we could dream of, and I couldn't be happier. I've spent the last three weeks madly rebasing and repainting my old 8th Edition Nurgle Daemon army, intent on hitting this release.
By now, there have been more reviews of the book than you can count, going through spells, artefacts and new units in meticulous detail. And typically, a review is how I would tackle this release, but I thought I'd try something a little bit different. So, without further ado, I present...
MY FIVE FAVOURITE THINGS ABOUT MAGGOTKIN!
1: NURGLINGS
It's no secret that much of the appeal in Nurgle, and the driving force behind a very large and dedicated fanbase, is the jolly and joyful character of Nurgle's minions. While there's no question that some elements of Nurgle's hordes are dour and grim, one thing that stands out above all the other Chaos Gods' armies is the overwhelming optimism apparent in so much of the range. Nothing quite captures that joy quite like Nurglings. And while the Nurgling kit itself is full of hilarious little fatties, the real heroes of the Nurgling range are ones found in other kits. From Jabba Nurgling (found in the easy to build Blightlord Terminator kit) to Braveheart Nurgling and Wizard Nurgling from the GUO kit, these little characters are almost a unique range on their own. And who could possibly look past the heroic Nurgling riding a miniature Plague Drone from the Pusgoyle kit.
I've got a little project in mind that'll use some of the best Nurgling sculpts, but you'll hopefully see that in an episode of A Brush With Disaster very soon!
It also helps that they're far more practical and strategic, ruleswise, than they were in past incarnations. The addition of a save, and automatic deployments directly into terrain actually makes them a valuable tool in the Nurgle arsenal.
2: CONTAGION POINTS
Now, before I get into this, I'll acknowledge that a lot of people weren't a fan when this was first released, seeing it as a barrier to summoning, and slowing down the ability to insert units upfield early in the game. And I can understand where they are coming from, but I want to throw some stuff out there to explain why I think the Contagion Point system is so good.
Nurgle, regardless of whether you're going Mortal, Daemon or mixed, is not a Wizard-heavy army. A typical army will rarely contain more than two or three wizards, purely based on the high cost of units in the army. Many of the wizards have pretty high price tags too, being either mounted characters, like Bloab or the Glottkin, or being a monster themselves (GUO and Rotigus). The catch-twenty-two is that Nurgle has some truly incredible spells in their new arcane arsenal.
So, after all the Nurgle scrolls were stripped of their "Summon this unit" sections, where does that leave Nurgle players?
Well, the Contagion Point system was introduced. It's based heavily upon board control, where the more Nurgle's love spreads, through either units or Gnarlmaws, your tally really starts cranking up! Those points can then be spent to bring units on the board, and this is where the true beauty of Contagion Points comes into it. When you decide to bring a unit onto the table (which still needs reinforcement points, make no mistake), it doesn't matter if all of your wizards are dead. It doesn't matter if you're facing a Lord of Change with a dozen bonuses to unbinding. And it is not comsuming one of your ever-so-valuable casting attempts. There is nothing that can stop this mechanic. You can't fail to cast, or have Contagion Points taken off you or removed from the game. Sure, you might not be able to summon three new units on turn one, but I think the trade off is very favourable to Nurgle players.
3: FECULENT GNARLMAWS
This flows on nicely from Contagion Points, as it tackles the issue of "What do I do if I have no reinforcement points?".
Grow a ton of trees!
Feculent Gnarlmaws are very reminiscent of Sylvaneth Wildwoods, in that you can bring terrain onto the table that greatly benefits your army, and poses significant danger to your enemies. The two play very different roles in the game, but Gnarlmaws are very practical and crucial to any Nurgle army. Needing a measly 7 Contagion points to sprout a tree, these can quickly become a real thorn in your opponent's side. Whether you stack around an objective in Duality of Death and threaten to put mortal wounds on your opponent, use them as slingshot platforms for running and charging or use them to completely zone off areas for previously mentioned Sylvaneth players to plant their forests. That big open 3-Wildwood-sized area of the battle field would look better with a Gnarlmaw right in the centre. To top it off, the models are unreal! So much effort and detail has been poured into the design, and while at first, I was disappointed that something I would need multiples of was not modular, the kit itself has some small options to mix up the branch configuration.
4: BEASTS OF NURGLE
This one, I know, is a bit left field. A lot of players I've talked to do not rate Beasts of Nurgle.
But I'm not one to cave in to peer pressure, and I flippin' love them! I've wishlisted for years about plastic Beasts of Nurgle. When I was a young lad, I was responsible for some truly horrendous conversions for Beasts, and I can tell you right now; the minute I saw the new Beasts, my old ones went straight in the bin. That's not even a metaphor. In the trash. The new model is.. amazing! At first, I was a little disappointed that it was essentially monopose, but upon assembling one, I was pleased to find that you get three different bellies and three different faces, giving you the opportunity to differentiate each model. I can't see myself using much more than three in a game, so that's totally fine with me! The model is very dynamic, and it's massive!
Beasts have changed from 40mm bases and being about the same size as a Minotaur to being pound for pound as big (if not a little larger) than the old metal Great Unclean One! I think they've also slightly changed in their battlefield role. I used to run them in a unit of four to six as a tarpit that just refused to die. Now, I believe they're more of a utility unit best run as single models. Are they worth their points? Playtesting will tell, but I think they definitely have their uses. The are large enough that they can block line of sight for Heralds, giving them a degree of protection against some shooting, and even denying the opponent the chance to unbind (if they can't see a Poxbringer behind a Beast, for example). I don't know how much table time mine will see, but the models are fantastic, and I'll definitely be buying a few.
5: COMMAND ABILITIES
Despite the Daemon side of things remaining relatively straight forward, the one real challenge faced by every Mortal player is the decision on who will be their general! With the addition of characters, and others having their scrolls re-written, there are some seriously powerful Command Abilities, and each one steers your army and playstyle. I love this about the army, because it's defined so much by it's general. Whether you want to make one unit almost impervious to conventional attacks with the Lord of Blights, create a tenacious strongpoint with the Harbinger of Decay, or simply wish to run the Lord of Afflictions to lead Nurgle's Royal Air Force, options abound! All of the command abilities are incredibly strong, but that's where the beauty lies. You have to pick which one you like the most and build around it!
So, those are my five favourite things from the new Battletome. All in all, I really like it, and I think it's very strong in the right hands! I've wasted no time in dragging my Nurgle Daemons out of storage for some table time, and I'm slowly but surely repainting them in a new scheme; all white and pasty.
I'll be posting a blog (or possibly a video) discussing my plans for 1000 and 2000 points, as I rebuild my rotting empire, but in the mean time, what do you consider must haves in your Maggotkin army, and who's your favourite Nurgling?
Until next time, thanks for reading,
Gabe
Sunday 28 January 2018
Sunday 21 January 2018
#117: Tinyhammer Event Overview Pt 2
The day was upon me, and usually on the day of a tournament, I like to arrive a little bit early, enjoy a coffee and settle into the gaming mindset. Today would not be quite so peaceful.After spending the previous evening madly putting final touches on the basing of the army, I raced to the venue and arrived with literally a minute to spare. Great start!
My first game was against (ironically enough) against Clan Pestilens, although it was fairly different to what I had in mind.
Plague Priest
Plague Priest
40 Plague Monks
40 Plague Monks
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
The scenario was Battle for the Pass, which I knew was gonna be an uphill battle, as my opponent had two huge units that would prove to be hard to whittle down. My opponent snagged first turn and his two catapults went to work, killing four skinks out of one unit, and obliterating the other off the board. Not the start I had planned.
I then teleported up with Kroak, got ready to get on a Balewind, then managed a total of two mortal wounds on a Priest with three spells... Not exactly the start I had planned. I did manage to back it up with a double turn, which proved far more successful, slaughtering both Priests, and belting around the catapults to imminent destruction.
I'll be honest, I was pretty scattered in this game, as I got the objective scoring conditions mixed up with the Knife to the Heart conditions, and so I was playing to a completely different set of rules than I needed to, none of which favoured me! I am glad that it was to my disadvantage, because if I got it wrong and just ran away with a tainted victory, I probably would have conceded.
As it was, I managed to survive the initial onslaught, then kill of key pieces and spend the rest of the of the game managing the hordes and capping objectives. The superior movement and teleport capabilities of Seraphon allowed me to be in the right place at the right time, denying my opponent the opportunity to score, and claiming objectives that were left open to capture. In the end, the scoreline displayed a convincing win to Seraphon, despite taking horrific losses. This landed me a hard-fought Major Win, and a great result leading forward, pushing me into the top bracket going into round two.
Round two was where things began to go down hill on the ol' game department. My round two match up was against a bit of an uncommon faction that turned out to be the worst possible match up leading forward. A Phoenix Court!
Annointed on Frostheart Phoenix
10 Phoenix Guard (battleline)
20 Phoenix Guard (battleline)
Loremaster (Allies)
3 Longstrike Raptors (Allies)
The scenario was Duality of Death; it was just the perfect storm. He won priority, moved the Phoenix onto one objective, and just flooded the other with Phoenix Guard. This first turn pretty much zoned me out of both objectives, and Kroak's formidable arcane arsenal was stifled by the mortal wound save on the Phoenix units. I did manage to put a few points on the board late game with my Priest, but it didn't take long for the Longstrikes to punch enough holes in him and put an end to that.
This ended up being a sound defeat, and a very deflating game. I just didn't have an answer for a lot of the elements in his list, and every one of my Insights yielded better results for my opponent. Luck, the scenario, and the opposing list took its toll, and I just couldn't claw it back.
With a win and a loss under my belt, I knew that I'd be sitting in the middle of the pack, so my next opponent could literally be anything. The names and tables were called, and I ended up getting matched up against Tzeentch. Here we go. Even within the Disciples of Tzeentch book, there are several different builds commonly seen, but what was deployed against me was entirely different.
Tzaangor Shaman
3 Enlightened
20 Acolytes
20 Acolytes
Witchfyre Coven
I looked at the list, and at first glance, it didn't appear to really do anything. Three Enlightened was manageable, I was only facing a single spell from the Shaman that should be easy enough to shut down, and Acolytes were great for holding objectives, but would likely suffer heavy losses to Kroak and the Salamanders. As it turns out, however, this army had a surprising amount of shooting. The battalion allows the acolytes to shoot in both the hero and the shooting phase with an 18' range, thanks to the unit champ. That's a lot of shooting coming my way! The scenario was Starstrike, so I had a turn or two to blitz units off the table before the rubber hit the road. My opponent, having a two-drop army, gave me first turn, as there was nothing in range and no objectives to cap.
I wasted no time in rolling no Insights, and failed Summon Starlight with the Priest on Kroak to make him -1 To Hit with combat and shooting. At that point in the game, I should have stepped back and said to myself 'there's no pressure, your opponent can't touch you this turn. Play it cool'. That's what I should have said. Instead, I launched up the table, cast Mystic Shield upon myself, then failed Summon Balewind, Comet's Call and Celestial Deliverance. Zero damage was caused, and I was sitting on the ground a mere 9.5" away from a shooting list with only Mystic Shield to protect me. Oh dear...
My opponent's first turn consisted of firing eighty shots into Kroak, before charging the Enlightened in to make sure there was no possible way that he could survive his Battleshock mechanic. Just like that, before any objectives had even landed, half my army was gone! OUCH! It was a pretty unfortunate hero phase on my part, getting a single spell off, and not reaping any Insights. But them's the breaks!
It was at this point of the day that I received a pretty distressing phone call and had to leave the event to attend to an urgent matter. It wasn't how I wanted to finish the day, but it was necessary. I felt pretty bad for my round three opponent, as I didn't really give him much of a game, but he was very understanding and accepted my surrender to give him a major victory.
For that reason, I didn't play the fourth game, which counted as a forfeit.
With the huge focus on painting in final scores, I finished 18th out of 38 players, which I was over the moon about! I managed to get an 18/20 for painting, which catapulted me out of the bottom bracket, and was also a pretty satisfying milestone for an army that I'd managed to punch out in a week. Painting was based off a checklist, which helped me work out what was needed for a decent score.
All in all, and having to leave early aside, I think what really cost me a decent showing at the tournament was my selection of list. I'd only played two practice games, and I think I took it with the focus of "doing well" rather than "doing well with my army". I think if I'd taken my Pestilens, which I think I would have enjoyed more, then sure, I might lose a game or four but I'd be using my army. My goal is to do well with Pestilens this year at tournaments, and that's tricky to do if I don't take them.
The tournament as a whole was well run; there were no incorrect match-ups that I was made aware of, and it stuck to schedule, which are both easier said than done. If I were to raise one piece of constructive criticism, it would be that I think the event would have benefited from submitting lists, and those lists being checked before the event itself. It's a quick and easy process these days with tools like Warscroll Builder, but as it happened, there were two illegal lists there that could have been handled before the event. Did they have an impact on the overall standings? It's hard to tell, but it's also an issue that you hope, as a player at an event, is not going to be a question in the first place.
It was a great turnout! Thirty-eight players to a 1000pt Tournament is nothing to sneeze at. There were even a couple of players who made the drive down from Toowoomba (around two hours, depending on how slow or fast you drive), and it was a pleasure to meet them! There were probably only about fifteen armies that were fully painted, but of those fifteen, there were some exceptionally painted miniatures on display.
It was somewhat of a bittersweet event, all things considered, and not the way I wanted to kick my tournament season off, but it's one under the belt, and I learnt from my mistakes and incorrect decisions.
Now, to focus back on the Chaos Grand Alliance... Oh, look! Maggotkin!
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
My first game was against (ironically enough) against Clan Pestilens, although it was fairly different to what I had in mind.
Plague Priest
Plague Priest
40 Plague Monks
40 Plague Monks
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
The scenario was Battle for the Pass, which I knew was gonna be an uphill battle, as my opponent had two huge units that would prove to be hard to whittle down. My opponent snagged first turn and his two catapults went to work, killing four skinks out of one unit, and obliterating the other off the board. Not the start I had planned.
I then teleported up with Kroak, got ready to get on a Balewind, then managed a total of two mortal wounds on a Priest with three spells... Not exactly the start I had planned. I did manage to back it up with a double turn, which proved far more successful, slaughtering both Priests, and belting around the catapults to imminent destruction.
I'll be honest, I was pretty scattered in this game, as I got the objective scoring conditions mixed up with the Knife to the Heart conditions, and so I was playing to a completely different set of rules than I needed to, none of which favoured me! I am glad that it was to my disadvantage, because if I got it wrong and just ran away with a tainted victory, I probably would have conceded.
As it was, I managed to survive the initial onslaught, then kill of key pieces and spend the rest of the of the game managing the hordes and capping objectives. The superior movement and teleport capabilities of Seraphon allowed me to be in the right place at the right time, denying my opponent the opportunity to score, and claiming objectives that were left open to capture. In the end, the scoreline displayed a convincing win to Seraphon, despite taking horrific losses. This landed me a hard-fought Major Win, and a great result leading forward, pushing me into the top bracket going into round two.
Round two was where things began to go down hill on the ol' game department. My round two match up was against a bit of an uncommon faction that turned out to be the worst possible match up leading forward. A Phoenix Court!
Annointed on Frostheart Phoenix
10 Phoenix Guard (battleline)
20 Phoenix Guard (battleline)
Loremaster (Allies)
3 Longstrike Raptors (Allies)
The scenario was Duality of Death; it was just the perfect storm. He won priority, moved the Phoenix onto one objective, and just flooded the other with Phoenix Guard. This first turn pretty much zoned me out of both objectives, and Kroak's formidable arcane arsenal was stifled by the mortal wound save on the Phoenix units. I did manage to put a few points on the board late game with my Priest, but it didn't take long for the Longstrikes to punch enough holes in him and put an end to that.
This ended up being a sound defeat, and a very deflating game. I just didn't have an answer for a lot of the elements in his list, and every one of my Insights yielded better results for my opponent. Luck, the scenario, and the opposing list took its toll, and I just couldn't claw it back.
With a win and a loss under my belt, I knew that I'd be sitting in the middle of the pack, so my next opponent could literally be anything. The names and tables were called, and I ended up getting matched up against Tzeentch. Here we go. Even within the Disciples of Tzeentch book, there are several different builds commonly seen, but what was deployed against me was entirely different.
Tzaangor Shaman
3 Enlightened
20 Acolytes
20 Acolytes
Witchfyre Coven
I looked at the list, and at first glance, it didn't appear to really do anything. Three Enlightened was manageable, I was only facing a single spell from the Shaman that should be easy enough to shut down, and Acolytes were great for holding objectives, but would likely suffer heavy losses to Kroak and the Salamanders. As it turns out, however, this army had a surprising amount of shooting. The battalion allows the acolytes to shoot in both the hero and the shooting phase with an 18' range, thanks to the unit champ. That's a lot of shooting coming my way! The scenario was Starstrike, so I had a turn or two to blitz units off the table before the rubber hit the road. My opponent, having a two-drop army, gave me first turn, as there was nothing in range and no objectives to cap.
I wasted no time in rolling no Insights, and failed Summon Starlight with the Priest on Kroak to make him -1 To Hit with combat and shooting. At that point in the game, I should have stepped back and said to myself 'there's no pressure, your opponent can't touch you this turn. Play it cool'. That's what I should have said. Instead, I launched up the table, cast Mystic Shield upon myself, then failed Summon Balewind, Comet's Call and Celestial Deliverance. Zero damage was caused, and I was sitting on the ground a mere 9.5" away from a shooting list with only Mystic Shield to protect me. Oh dear...
My opponent's first turn consisted of firing eighty shots into Kroak, before charging the Enlightened in to make sure there was no possible way that he could survive his Battleshock mechanic. Just like that, before any objectives had even landed, half my army was gone! OUCH! It was a pretty unfortunate hero phase on my part, getting a single spell off, and not reaping any Insights. But them's the breaks!
It was at this point of the day that I received a pretty distressing phone call and had to leave the event to attend to an urgent matter. It wasn't how I wanted to finish the day, but it was necessary. I felt pretty bad for my round three opponent, as I didn't really give him much of a game, but he was very understanding and accepted my surrender to give him a major victory.
For that reason, I didn't play the fourth game, which counted as a forfeit.
With the huge focus on painting in final scores, I finished 18th out of 38 players, which I was over the moon about! I managed to get an 18/20 for painting, which catapulted me out of the bottom bracket, and was also a pretty satisfying milestone for an army that I'd managed to punch out in a week. Painting was based off a checklist, which helped me work out what was needed for a decent score.
All in all, and having to leave early aside, I think what really cost me a decent showing at the tournament was my selection of list. I'd only played two practice games, and I think I took it with the focus of "doing well" rather than "doing well with my army". I think if I'd taken my Pestilens, which I think I would have enjoyed more, then sure, I might lose a game or four but I'd be using my army. My goal is to do well with Pestilens this year at tournaments, and that's tricky to do if I don't take them.
The tournament as a whole was well run; there were no incorrect match-ups that I was made aware of, and it stuck to schedule, which are both easier said than done. If I were to raise one piece of constructive criticism, it would be that I think the event would have benefited from submitting lists, and those lists being checked before the event itself. It's a quick and easy process these days with tools like Warscroll Builder, but as it happened, there were two illegal lists there that could have been handled before the event. Did they have an impact on the overall standings? It's hard to tell, but it's also an issue that you hope, as a player at an event, is not going to be a question in the first place.
It was a great turnout! Thirty-eight players to a 1000pt Tournament is nothing to sneeze at. There were even a couple of players who made the drive down from Toowoomba (around two hours, depending on how slow or fast you drive), and it was a pleasure to meet them! There were probably only about fifteen armies that were fully painted, but of those fifteen, there were some exceptionally painted miniatures on display.
It was somewhat of a bittersweet event, all things considered, and not the way I wanted to kick my tournament season off, but it's one under the belt, and I learnt from my mistakes and incorrect decisions.
Now, to focus back on the Chaos Grand Alliance... Oh, look! Maggotkin!
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
Monday 15 January 2018
#116 Tinyhammer Event Overview Part 1
Typically, when I go to a tournament, I'll break it down into three (or four or five, depending on the tournament) Battle Reports and then do a wrap up post to finish off the series, but for Tinyhammer (a 1000 point tournament at one of the local Warhammer stores), I've opted instead to publish two posts to recap the event, one covering the pre-event lead up, as well as a post covering the event itself . This is for several reasons, but I'll let you read on.
As with any tournament, I had to decide what force I would be taking with me. For me, this decision is largely influenced by the Player Pack, as some of the armies in my collection perform much better in certain environments than others do. In this particular case, the Player Pack stated that your army would be given a painting score out of twenty and that score would be multiplied by the number of games. This is obviously a huge deal, as over a four game tournament, four major wins with all secondary event-specific objectives, would bag me 80 tournament points. Painting scores offered up to an additional 80 tournament points for the day! So, I knew if I wanted to drag any kind of success out of the bag, I had to take a fully painted and based army.
This rounded down my options to Clan Pestilens and Khorne Bloodbound, being the two fully painted armies that I was completely comfortable with, and had an abundance of options to play around with. I toyed with running either a mini-Murderhost, or even a combo Letter Bomb, which consisted of a Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster, a Stoker, and as many Letters as I could fit, but alas... All of my Bloodletters were on 25mm bases, where they're meant to be on 32mm's. Usually, people are willing to give a little lee-way, even at a tournament (if its not too bonkers), but Bloodletters on 25mm's have a significant advantage over 32mm bases, as their 1" weapons can reach through a rank, allowing for tons more potentially devastating attacks to be pushed through. As I knew that it would (at the very least) be frowned upon, and as I didn't have it in me to rebase sixty Bloodletters, I opted away from that option.
I also had some ideas for utilising the Bloodbound side of Blades of Khorne. I toyed with a Reaver horde, a Juggernaught-heavy cavalry list; the idea even crossed my mind to use a unit of six Khorgoraths! But, after sitting and pondering each list, I managed to get inside my own head and convince myself they wouldn't perform well in the meta. Would they have? Who knows...
Then my attention turned to my pet project of last year, the countless swarms of crazy religious zealot rats that make up Clan Pestilens. This fit into my New Year's Resolutions perfectly. Take Pestilens, put up a decent performance, and perhaps get into the upper end of the roster to get some of those tasty ranking points that everyone currently so desires. So I went to work to find out what I could fit into 1000 points. As it turns out, with horde armies, you can fit a metric ton of bodies on the table.
The first decision I had to make was whether I wanted a Corruptor or a Plague Furnace as my general, and I gotta say, it was an easy decision. In 1000 points, a Plague Furnace with the Liber Bubonica is something to be feared. It hands out buffs with impunity, and is no slouch in combat, with its noxious aura and foggy, furious wrecking ball of the flu! I backed up the Furnace with two Priests, knowing full well that I needed to knuckle down and get as many prayers off each turn as I could. With Heroes sorted, this left me to fill Battleline... and fill it I did!
Two units of forty and a unit of twenty Plague Monks took my model count over a hundred, and sat within the points limit allowed! I veered away from Plagueclaws, as I think one is unreliable, and two is by far too large a portion of my army. I know what Monks can do, and I know that on a 4'x4' table, a hundred bodies is gonna take some work to get through!
So, there it was. I'd settled on a list that I already had fully painted, that I was comfortable with, and that could play the scenario in most situations pretty convincingly. I then sent it out to a few people for feedback, and there in lay my unravelling. Most people were horrified by the idea of facing the list. Sure, monks die to a particularly stern glance, but most armies just didn't have the damage output to thin the horde before it hit. Most armies.
It quickly became apparent that Disciples of Tzeentch would be at the tournament in force, and I knew full well that if a Gaunt Summoner got on a Balewind (but, who puts a GS on a Balewind... right, guys? Right?), he would burn through my hordes and have my army for lunch. With that notion alone, I started scrambling. Instead of doing what a logical person would do, and tweak the list to mitigate the possibility of a bad match up, I was like a deer in the headlights of the idea of "the worst matchup". I can say this now, but I feel I should have dropped the small unit of Monks out and swapped an allied Skaven unit in. Jezzails or an Arch-Warlock might not solve all my problems, but they would have given me that ever-so-valuable long-range damage output that would have given the rest of my army some covering fire. But did I think logically? Absolutely not.
I spent several hours studying warscrolls and engineering combos, trying to find that perfect list. And I looked at every possible option. I thought about taking Chaos Dwarves, but alas, Forgeworld was not permitted at the event. I thought about taking Stormcast, but they just didn't inspire me at the time. I even considered ppurchasing and painting a Kharadron Overlord mini-Clown-Car, piling as many Balloon Bros as I could onto a Barak-Zilfin Frigate. This was the mindset I was in; just all over the place. Then a mate of mine sent me a list that caught my eye.
Lord Kroak
Skink Starpriest
10 Skinks
10 Skinks
2 Razordons
3 Salamanders
150 points in reinforcements.
Basically, the whole list was built around Lord Kroak teleporting into the centre of the board, jumping up on a Balewind and then going apocalyptic with his magical arsenal. And while he and his Balewind weigh in at a horrifying 550 points, it was hard to deny his sheer destructive capabilities and tenacity with his bizarre wound mechanic. With Mystic Shield and Starlight (from the priest), he sits pretty at a 2+ save atop the balewind, with -1 to Hit. Many armies simply don't have the tools to deal with him at 1000 points. The other advantage is that he can Unbind spells board-wide. This means that he can sit outside of 18" of enemy wizards, completely dampen their magic phase and then cast at his leisure, uncontested.
The skinks were in there, because not only are they fantastically cheap and infuriating to pin down in combat, but they are FAST!
Razordons offered some consistent shooting to trim down larger units, or blitz a character who might find himself unguarded. They also have a natural 4+, so with some buffs, they can pose a real roadblock!
This leaves the Salamanders. Typically, I would use my turn one Seraphon Teleport on Kroak, but turn two, I'd slingshot these guys at the biggest, scariest unit I can see, and try and Fireball them to death. And this is where the cheeky 50 points of summoning comes into it. When a Seraphon unit teleports, they must be 9" away, and can't move unless the dice comes up as a 6. With their shooting attack only being 8" range, this obviously poses a slight... reliability problem. That's where Skink Handlers shine. They are 40 points for 3, can be summoned on a 4+ (also 9" away from enemies, but Salamanders within 3" extend the range of their shooting attack to 12". This means that, if I roll a 6 for their teleport, they can safely move into range in the movement phase, but if they don't, I can use one of Kroak's four casting attempts to summon some cheeky handlers and burninate the countryside!
While all that sounds scary on paper, the real sting of the list comes from Kroak's command ablilty, which allows him to generate an "Insight" for every 4+ rolled on 3 dice. These Insights can then be used to re-roll any dice until my next hero phase (with the exception of the Priority Roll, as per Rule of One). Any dice. A casting attempt, a botched teleport roll, a damage roll for a spell or shooting attack... Powerful, right? But then I thought... Any Dice? My opponent's dice? Enemy charges, successful casting attempts, reserve rolls for Stormcast. Destiny Dice? DESTINY DICE!
After much studying, debate and deliberation, we came to the understanding (and if you can disprove this, please do so, because it seems pretty amazing), that when a Destiny Dice is used in one of its many ways, I can force my opponent to re-roll that dice. Substitute in a 6 to push through a spell? Sub in a 1 on a Battleshock test for your Pink Horrors? Nah, how about a re-roll!
It completely changes the dynamic of your opponent's turn because they know that the 'moment' they need to happen can be affected by something other than pure probability. Success is a further reach. If I possibly could, I would keep an Insight in the bag for my opponent's turn, sometimes even forgoing an opportunity in my own turn, just to keep that psychological edge, and to have a very large spanner to throw in the works if needed.
Now, it's not all rainbows and lolliipops. This list has two blinding weaknesses. Model count and hordes. With my whole army being solely dependant on a single model, this fell very heavily into the "All Eggs in One Basket" area; something I usually avoid like the Plague (unless I'm playing... wait for it... Pestilens! That was a bad one, I'm sorry). This means that if I either lose him, or he is ignored, the rest of my army is going to eat dirt in a heartbeat. The other issue that I had was the apparent inability to handle massive regiments. Kroak excels at nuking elite, MSU-style armies (Stormcast and Tzeentch spring to mind), but throw 40 Skeletons at him, and there's not a lot he's going to do. Scenarios and match ups would make or break this tournament for me.
With the list settled upon, I made short work of painting it, managing to crank out the entire army in under a week. This was an incredibly important element, as Paint Scores played such a large part of the player pack. I knew if I wanted to do well, I'd need to crank out a cohesive. And I even managed to fit in two practice games in, both against Disciples of Tzeentch. The first was right down to the wire, and I managed to win Duality of Death 1-0. The second, was quite the opposite, as I rolled the hottest dice of my life, and managed to nuke my opponent off the table in two turns.
These two games gave me the confidence that this list had legs, and might actually get me over the line. Two games against great match ups? What could go wrong!
Check back in on Sunday for my overview of the tournament itself!
What's your go-to 1000 point list?
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
As with any tournament, I had to decide what force I would be taking with me. For me, this decision is largely influenced by the Player Pack, as some of the armies in my collection perform much better in certain environments than others do. In this particular case, the Player Pack stated that your army would be given a painting score out of twenty and that score would be multiplied by the number of games. This is obviously a huge deal, as over a four game tournament, four major wins with all secondary event-specific objectives, would bag me 80 tournament points. Painting scores offered up to an additional 80 tournament points for the day! So, I knew if I wanted to drag any kind of success out of the bag, I had to take a fully painted and based army.
This rounded down my options to Clan Pestilens and Khorne Bloodbound, being the two fully painted armies that I was completely comfortable with, and had an abundance of options to play around with. I toyed with running either a mini-Murderhost, or even a combo Letter Bomb, which consisted of a Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster, a Stoker, and as many Letters as I could fit, but alas... All of my Bloodletters were on 25mm bases, where they're meant to be on 32mm's. Usually, people are willing to give a little lee-way, even at a tournament (if its not too bonkers), but Bloodletters on 25mm's have a significant advantage over 32mm bases, as their 1" weapons can reach through a rank, allowing for tons more potentially devastating attacks to be pushed through. As I knew that it would (at the very least) be frowned upon, and as I didn't have it in me to rebase sixty Bloodletters, I opted away from that option.
I also had some ideas for utilising the Bloodbound side of Blades of Khorne. I toyed with a Reaver horde, a Juggernaught-heavy cavalry list; the idea even crossed my mind to use a unit of six Khorgoraths! But, after sitting and pondering each list, I managed to get inside my own head and convince myself they wouldn't perform well in the meta. Would they have? Who knows...
Then my attention turned to my pet project of last year, the countless swarms of crazy religious zealot rats that make up Clan Pestilens. This fit into my New Year's Resolutions perfectly. Take Pestilens, put up a decent performance, and perhaps get into the upper end of the roster to get some of those tasty ranking points that everyone currently so desires. So I went to work to find out what I could fit into 1000 points. As it turns out, with horde armies, you can fit a metric ton of bodies on the table.
The first decision I had to make was whether I wanted a Corruptor or a Plague Furnace as my general, and I gotta say, it was an easy decision. In 1000 points, a Plague Furnace with the Liber Bubonica is something to be feared. It hands out buffs with impunity, and is no slouch in combat, with its noxious aura and foggy, furious wrecking ball of the flu! I backed up the Furnace with two Priests, knowing full well that I needed to knuckle down and get as many prayers off each turn as I could. With Heroes sorted, this left me to fill Battleline... and fill it I did!
Two units of forty and a unit of twenty Plague Monks took my model count over a hundred, and sat within the points limit allowed! I veered away from Plagueclaws, as I think one is unreliable, and two is by far too large a portion of my army. I know what Monks can do, and I know that on a 4'x4' table, a hundred bodies is gonna take some work to get through!
So, there it was. I'd settled on a list that I already had fully painted, that I was comfortable with, and that could play the scenario in most situations pretty convincingly. I then sent it out to a few people for feedback, and there in lay my unravelling. Most people were horrified by the idea of facing the list. Sure, monks die to a particularly stern glance, but most armies just didn't have the damage output to thin the horde before it hit. Most armies.
It quickly became apparent that Disciples of Tzeentch would be at the tournament in force, and I knew full well that if a Gaunt Summoner got on a Balewind (but, who puts a GS on a Balewind... right, guys? Right?), he would burn through my hordes and have my army for lunch. With that notion alone, I started scrambling. Instead of doing what a logical person would do, and tweak the list to mitigate the possibility of a bad match up, I was like a deer in the headlights of the idea of "the worst matchup". I can say this now, but I feel I should have dropped the small unit of Monks out and swapped an allied Skaven unit in. Jezzails or an Arch-Warlock might not solve all my problems, but they would have given me that ever-so-valuable long-range damage output that would have given the rest of my army some covering fire. But did I think logically? Absolutely not.
I spent several hours studying warscrolls and engineering combos, trying to find that perfect list. And I looked at every possible option. I thought about taking Chaos Dwarves, but alas, Forgeworld was not permitted at the event. I thought about taking Stormcast, but they just didn't inspire me at the time. I even considered ppurchasing and painting a Kharadron Overlord mini-Clown-Car, piling as many Balloon Bros as I could onto a Barak-Zilfin Frigate. This was the mindset I was in; just all over the place. Then a mate of mine sent me a list that caught my eye.
Lord Kroak
Skink Starpriest
10 Skinks
10 Skinks
2 Razordons
3 Salamanders
150 points in reinforcements.
Basically, the whole list was built around Lord Kroak teleporting into the centre of the board, jumping up on a Balewind and then going apocalyptic with his magical arsenal. And while he and his Balewind weigh in at a horrifying 550 points, it was hard to deny his sheer destructive capabilities and tenacity with his bizarre wound mechanic. With Mystic Shield and Starlight (from the priest), he sits pretty at a 2+ save atop the balewind, with -1 to Hit. Many armies simply don't have the tools to deal with him at 1000 points. The other advantage is that he can Unbind spells board-wide. This means that he can sit outside of 18" of enemy wizards, completely dampen their magic phase and then cast at his leisure, uncontested.
The skinks were in there, because not only are they fantastically cheap and infuriating to pin down in combat, but they are FAST!
Razordons offered some consistent shooting to trim down larger units, or blitz a character who might find himself unguarded. They also have a natural 4+, so with some buffs, they can pose a real roadblock!
This leaves the Salamanders. Typically, I would use my turn one Seraphon Teleport on Kroak, but turn two, I'd slingshot these guys at the biggest, scariest unit I can see, and try and Fireball them to death. And this is where the cheeky 50 points of summoning comes into it. When a Seraphon unit teleports, they must be 9" away, and can't move unless the dice comes up as a 6. With their shooting attack only being 8" range, this obviously poses a slight... reliability problem. That's where Skink Handlers shine. They are 40 points for 3, can be summoned on a 4+ (also 9" away from enemies, but Salamanders within 3" extend the range of their shooting attack to 12". This means that, if I roll a 6 for their teleport, they can safely move into range in the movement phase, but if they don't, I can use one of Kroak's four casting attempts to summon some cheeky handlers and burninate the countryside!
While all that sounds scary on paper, the real sting of the list comes from Kroak's command ablilty, which allows him to generate an "Insight" for every 4+ rolled on 3 dice. These Insights can then be used to re-roll any dice until my next hero phase (with the exception of the Priority Roll, as per Rule of One). Any dice. A casting attempt, a botched teleport roll, a damage roll for a spell or shooting attack... Powerful, right? But then I thought... Any Dice? My opponent's dice? Enemy charges, successful casting attempts, reserve rolls for Stormcast. Destiny Dice? DESTINY DICE!
After much studying, debate and deliberation, we came to the understanding (and if you can disprove this, please do so, because it seems pretty amazing), that when a Destiny Dice is used in one of its many ways, I can force my opponent to re-roll that dice. Substitute in a 6 to push through a spell? Sub in a 1 on a Battleshock test for your Pink Horrors? Nah, how about a re-roll!
It completely changes the dynamic of your opponent's turn because they know that the 'moment' they need to happen can be affected by something other than pure probability. Success is a further reach. If I possibly could, I would keep an Insight in the bag for my opponent's turn, sometimes even forgoing an opportunity in my own turn, just to keep that psychological edge, and to have a very large spanner to throw in the works if needed.
Now, it's not all rainbows and lolliipops. This list has two blinding weaknesses. Model count and hordes. With my whole army being solely dependant on a single model, this fell very heavily into the "All Eggs in One Basket" area; something I usually avoid like the Plague (unless I'm playing... wait for it... Pestilens! That was a bad one, I'm sorry). This means that if I either lose him, or he is ignored, the rest of my army is going to eat dirt in a heartbeat. The other issue that I had was the apparent inability to handle massive regiments. Kroak excels at nuking elite, MSU-style armies (Stormcast and Tzeentch spring to mind), but throw 40 Skeletons at him, and there's not a lot he's going to do. Scenarios and match ups would make or break this tournament for me.
With the list settled upon, I made short work of painting it, managing to crank out the entire army in under a week. This was an incredibly important element, as Paint Scores played such a large part of the player pack. I knew if I wanted to do well, I'd need to crank out a cohesive. And I even managed to fit in two practice games in, both against Disciples of Tzeentch. The first was right down to the wire, and I managed to win Duality of Death 1-0. The second, was quite the opposite, as I rolled the hottest dice of my life, and managed to nuke my opponent off the table in two turns.
These two games gave me the confidence that this list had legs, and might actually get me over the line. Two games against great match ups? What could go wrong!
Check back in on Sunday for my overview of the tournament itself!
What's your go-to 1000 point list?
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
Sunday 7 January 2018
#115: New Year, New Me! Well, not really...
There's something about New Year's Resolutions. They aren't restrained by reality or doubt. No painting project, no gaming achievement, no hobby goal is beyond reach. New Year's Resolutions are fuelled by good intentions and pure, unfiltered optimism.
So, here goes.
January is a good time to recalibrate and reassess, especially after such a busy year last year, so I wanted to lay out to you my goals for 2017.
Let's tackle painting first. Last year I painted over two hundred models, which was my target. It didn't matter if it was a dishevelled Plague Monk or a towering Dreadknight, each model is one. Many times, I considered "cheating" counting larger models as 3 or even 5 for the tally, but that wasn't the challenge I set myself, and it won't be this year either. Numbers-wise, I'd love to match last year, and tick over that 200 model mark. I'd also love to finish two armies in their entirety as part of that 200 model lot. Last year, I practically finished Clan Pestilens, but the rest of my painting was largely unfocused, leaping from one project to the other in a sporadic and aimless pattern. Don't get me wrong, sometimes whimsical painting is the perfect method to break through Painters Block, which afflicts us all in some degree or another throughout our hobby lives. But I'd love to just smash out and "complete" projects.
But you and I both know, dear reader, that in the world of miniature wargaming, a project is very rarely completed.
Gaming wise, the evolution of the Australian Age of Sigmar scene has gone through an incredible level of growth in 2017. With the Heralds of War (an Australian Podcast) facilitating and maintaining the national tournament rankings, it has given the community a fire in their bellies and a goal to fight toward. Each event and tournament is now bigger than just a day-long or two day event. It's building your campaign toward Masters; the tournament to rule them all. In Australia, the top 16 ranked players in the nation get an invite to Masters. While I would love to get to Masters on my own merit, I think it needs to be said that there are dozens and dozens of great players standing between myself and that elusive upper echelon of gaming. So here's my realistic goal in a competitive sense. I want to finish the tournament season in the top 32 players in the country. I'd also love to finish the year with an Icon next to my name, which represents "Best Ranked Player in Faction". The Icon I have my eyes on is, of course, Clan Pestilens. If I can finish the year as the highest ranked Pestilens Player, I'll be a very happy man!
Lastly, of course, as many of you will know from the last couple of months, probably my biggest goal for the year is to move into video content, and to produce it at a high quality level. The studio is set up, the terrain is being painted and the table is almost ready to throw dice on! I went shopping for recording and sound equipment over the christmas break, and I have to say that I'm really excited for this next step. The way I see it, if I'm going to do video content, I want to create it to the highest level of quality that I can. There's no point making a half-hearted effort. I'm all in.
So there you go, there's my three New Years Resolutions.
Paint 200 Models including two complete armies.
Finish 2018 in the top 32 Players in the Australian AOS Rankings with an icon next to my name.
Move into video content on a larger scale.
I hope that you choose to follow along on this journey with me! I have an inkling that it's going to be a great year for the game! If you haven't already, 'like' the Facebook page to keep up to date, and of course, I want to hear from you! What are your New Years Hobby Resolutions?
So, here goes.
January is a good time to recalibrate and reassess, especially after such a busy year last year, so I wanted to lay out to you my goals for 2017.
Let's tackle painting first. Last year I painted over two hundred models, which was my target. It didn't matter if it was a dishevelled Plague Monk or a towering Dreadknight, each model is one. Many times, I considered "cheating" counting larger models as 3 or even 5 for the tally, but that wasn't the challenge I set myself, and it won't be this year either. Numbers-wise, I'd love to match last year, and tick over that 200 model mark. I'd also love to finish two armies in their entirety as part of that 200 model lot. Last year, I practically finished Clan Pestilens, but the rest of my painting was largely unfocused, leaping from one project to the other in a sporadic and aimless pattern. Don't get me wrong, sometimes whimsical painting is the perfect method to break through Painters Block, which afflicts us all in some degree or another throughout our hobby lives. But I'd love to just smash out and "complete" projects.
But you and I both know, dear reader, that in the world of miniature wargaming, a project is very rarely completed.
Gaming wise, the evolution of the Australian Age of Sigmar scene has gone through an incredible level of growth in 2017. With the Heralds of War (an Australian Podcast) facilitating and maintaining the national tournament rankings, it has given the community a fire in their bellies and a goal to fight toward. Each event and tournament is now bigger than just a day-long or two day event. It's building your campaign toward Masters; the tournament to rule them all. In Australia, the top 16 ranked players in the nation get an invite to Masters. While I would love to get to Masters on my own merit, I think it needs to be said that there are dozens and dozens of great players standing between myself and that elusive upper echelon of gaming. So here's my realistic goal in a competitive sense. I want to finish the tournament season in the top 32 players in the country. I'd also love to finish the year with an Icon next to my name, which represents "Best Ranked Player in Faction". The Icon I have my eyes on is, of course, Clan Pestilens. If I can finish the year as the highest ranked Pestilens Player, I'll be a very happy man!
Lastly, of course, as many of you will know from the last couple of months, probably my biggest goal for the year is to move into video content, and to produce it at a high quality level. The studio is set up, the terrain is being painted and the table is almost ready to throw dice on! I went shopping for recording and sound equipment over the christmas break, and I have to say that I'm really excited for this next step. The way I see it, if I'm going to do video content, I want to create it to the highest level of quality that I can. There's no point making a half-hearted effort. I'm all in.
So there you go, there's my three New Years Resolutions.
Paint 200 Models including two complete armies.
Finish 2018 in the top 32 Players in the Australian AOS Rankings with an icon next to my name.
Move into video content on a larger scale.
I hope that you choose to follow along on this journey with me! I have an inkling that it's going to be a great year for the game! If you haven't already, 'like' the Facebook page to keep up to date, and of course, I want to hear from you! What are your New Years Hobby Resolutions?
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