Year 2 Battle Stats

It's the end of August and thus concludes another year of battle statistics.

59 total games played (6 more than last year and I even took about about 2 months off when playing Fantasy). 26 different players involved.

37-7-15 (W-D-L) Overall record which was very similar to last year.

10-3-8 overall with Necrons.
13-2-5 overall with Orks.
7-1-2 overall with Space Marines.
7-1-0 overall with Tyranids.

I'm surprised I played one more game with my Necrons than my orks.


3 games were 3-way Carnage games (1-0-2). 1 was a 2vs2 (win). 1 was an Apocalypse (draw). It's too bad only 1 Apocalypse game was played. I used Necrons 4 out of 5 of these non-1 on 1 games.

In 54 1 on 1 games I am 35-6-13 against 22 different players. Out of those 54 games 12 were Planetstrike games, 3 were Battle Missions, 3 were Combat Patrols, and 4 were custom missions.

I was involved in a Combat Patrol League, a Planet Strike League, and a Tale of 4 Gamers League as well as the on-going Galus Crusade Campaign. I played in two local 1250pt tournaments finishing 2nd place in both of them I believe (one I know for sure). All the leagues lost momentum at the end and never truly finished unfortunately but my Necrons did quite well in the Planetstrike league going 5-0-2.


Other Stats:
Most common point level was 2000 (20 games), with 1250 being second (12) and 2500 a close third (11).


The most common army faced:
Bar none it was Space Marines which all in all had 32 appearances of some sort against me... most were codex chapters but 11 of them were Space Wolves who were my most common opponent.

Tied for second were Orks and Imperial Guard with 8 appearances each. Chaos Marines fell mightily from last year with only 5 appearances. Necrons, Eldar, Demons, and Tyranids rounded out the bottom with 4 or less appearances.

The one thing I learned this year is that if you really want a challenge, play Necrons at 1250pts. Good luck!

WHF 'Ard Boyz report: Lizardmen.

So Rhellion convinced me to go to the WHF 'Ard Boyz tournament and since he did build a box of Saurus for my army I felt obliged... if anything to get my Saurus from him! I dialed back my usual Friday night debauchery and went rolling into the tournament on 5 hours of solid sleep which has been par for the course the last 2 weeks due mostly to work.

It should be known that I am a total N00b at WHF and even though I have probably played more games of 8th edition than most people there I would be facing off against veteran players of 7th edition with probably 100's of games more experience than I.

That being said I think Lizardmen are one of the better armys out there and I took the following list.

Slann: General, BSB w/ Eternal Flame. Cupped Hands, Cogitation, Rumination, Life Loremaster.

Skink Priest: lvl 1, Dispel Scoll.
Saurus Hero: ASF sword, Gambler's armor, Potion of Speed.
Saurus Hero: Great weapon, Armor of Destiny.

30 Spear Saurus: FC
25 Saurus: FC
24 Saurus: FC
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers

6 Chameleon Skinks
6 Chameleon Skinks
5 Cold One Riders: Warbanner
3 Terradons

Ancient Stegadon
2 Salamanders
2 Salamanders


Game 1 against Bretonnians

General on Pegasus
Green Knight
Hero on Pegasus
Hero BSB
Level 2 Lady
2 Trebochets
some bowmen
5 Pegasus Knights
A crap ton of Knights

I know nothing about Bretonnians having never faced them.

During deployment we both rolled a ton of 1's which stuck a lot of our units on the left flank including my Slann which put him out of range of helping a lot of my army let alone hurting anything in the Bretonnian army. Wouldn't have mattered anyway because...

My Slann rolled horribly. Rolling two 1's on three plus casting dice and failing to cast three times during the game... even rolling three 1's and a 2 on four dice failing to cast Regrowth. So magic was pretty much a non-factor. My Salamanders managed to misfire 3 out of their first 4 shots as well. Awesome!

I did manage to beat down his largest unit of Knights but my opponent rolled double 1's on his leadership test two times in a row to keep a large portion of my army locked in combat! And when I finally broke them they ended up bouncing through 4 units and a building ending up over 30" away from their starting point to safety and easily rallied.

My opponent had his share of badluck with both Trebuchets destroying themselves to misfire on the last turn but I had the worst of it.

Hero of the match was my Warbanner Cold One surviving endless combat with a unit of Knights and the Hero on Pegasus for 4 rounds and actually forcing the unit of Knights along with the attached Lady to flee!

In the end we hardly killed anything of each others armys completely. Apparently fleeing at the end of the game means nothing so I ended up with a minor loss like 700 to 400 in VPs (seriously!). But I captured more standards and had more core choices alive for +2 BPs.

My opponent was a good guy though and we went to Taco Bell after the game.


Game 2 against Lizardmen (Life vs Death!)

Slann just like mine for the most part but he had the Lore of Death!
Old Blood on Cold One with Blade of Reality.

Skink Priest on Engine of the Gods.
Skink Chief on Stegadon w/ War Spear.

2 large unit of Saurus.
Small unit of Skinks.
2 units of Skink Skirmishers.

Huge unit of Cold Ones.
Large unit of Temple Guard.
Stegadon.

This army was a real 'Ard Boyz list maxed out on Lords and Heros and three Steggies.

This was billed as Life vs Death. I ended up getting off an IF Dwellers Below which took out his Slann in Turn 3. We ended up smashing each other up pretty good. His 3 Stegadons just rolled through my Saurus blocks like nothing. I was only able to take out one Stegadon and even though I killed his Chief and Priest I get no VPs unless I kill the mount as well.

If the game ended on turn 5 I would have won but we pushed to turn 6 and his Stegadons crushed my last unit of Saurus to paste. I ended up with another minor loss but got +3 BPs.

I made soooo many mistakes in this game which I blame on being near delirious with sleep deprivation and also lack of experience:

1. Not attacking the Stegadons in combat but their riders. Even though I needed 6's to wound I would have been better off trying to kill the beasts... all my efforts attacking the riders got me 0 VPs.
2. Over-running with my Stegadon against one of his Saurus blocks which put me in range to be murdered by the Old-Blood's BoR... not sure what I was thinking here.
3. Casting Dweller's Below the second time on a Stegadon when I should have cast it on the remains of the Temple Guard. Killing that unit off would have got me a draw as I ended up losing about 1700 to 1400 in VPs but I did gain +3 BPs.


Game 3 against Vampire Counts.

He had 4 Vampires. Lots of wolves and 4 large units of Ghouls (half of which ended up in reserve). A large unit of Knights and Grave Guard and a Varghulf.

This is the game where the gods of luck pay me back 100 fold. First turn I cast Dweller's Below on his unit of Ghouls with his Lord. He rolls a 6 and dies along with half the unit of Ghouls. My skinks obliterate his Wolves with shooting. It's just ugly and a foregone conclussion after 2 turns. Then he starts to come back.

My Slann gets caught on his own by a 22" charge from his Fell Bats. By the time I turn some units around to assist him he is killed. On the same turn my Stegadon is also killed by mass Ghoul poison! But it was too little too late and I end up crushing the rest of the Undeads with my 3 relatively untouched Saurus blocks AND I gain all 4 BPs!

In no small part of gaining bonus BPs and some people actually leaving after two games I ended up pulling third place with my one glorious victory! All glory to the Hypnotoad!

Congrats to Rhellion for winning with his Skaven. 2nd place went to Warriors of Chaos featuring what else? Tons of Chaos Warriors!

Life Star 3000: Lizardmen vs Skaven

I've been on a Fantasy kick since the release of the 8th edition rulebook and the last few weeks have seen me play a half-dozen or so games learning as I go, mistakes were made, there was wailing and gnashing of teeth, but now I think I got enough of a handle on the game to go big with nearly my entire army. Some Skinks were built literally minutes before being deployed...

So this was a massive battle that took well over 4 hours to play mainly because we rolled up Battle for the Pass and played length-wise down the board and I'm still pretty new to the game. Lots of maneuvering and not a lot of room adds up to lots of units that took a while to see combat.

Rhellion's Skaven have been 13th Spelling the local armys off the table including my Lizardmen in a previous 2000 point battle. Well no more! I was determined to put an end to this madness and give the Hypnotoad his deserved glory.

Life Star 3000:
Slann: BSB Banner of Eternal Flame (die HPA die!), Lore of Life, Cupped Hands of the Old Ones, Blood Statuette of Spite (forgot to use it), Focus of Mystery, Focused Rumination, Becalming Cogitation.

Oldblood: Gambler's Armour, Potion of Speed, Blade of Realty looking to sell some swamp land in Lustria...err... Blade of Realities.
Skink Priest: Engine of the Gods, Cube of Darkness.
Skink Priest: Displel Scroll.
Scar-Vet: Sword of Might, Enchanted Shield.

28 Saurus: FC, spears.
15 Saurus: FC.
15 Saurus: FC.
12 Skink Skirmishers.
12 Skink Skirmishers.

9 Chameleon Skinks.
3 Terradons.
8 Cold One Riders: FC, Warbanner.

2 Salamanders.

Pretty much my entire army save the Temple Guard who would pretty much be 13th Spell rats, so they sit this one out.

Rhellion's Skaven horde:
Grey Seer on Screaming Bell with Power Scroll, Dispel Scroll, 3 Warpstone Tokens
Warlord: Shield, War-litter, The Fellblade

Assassin: Weeping Blade, Potion of Strength
Chieftain BSB: Storm Banner
Plague Priest on Plague Furnace: Opal Amulet

2 Clan Rat units
1 Stormvermin unit
2 Skavenslave units
3 Poison Wind Mortar weapon teams

6 Gutter Runners
Plague Monks

Hell Pit Abomination
Doomwheel
Warp Lightning Cannon

All units had full command and at least 30 models plus other items on the characters I think.

THE BATTLE FIELD
The rows of gravestones counted as Ghost Fences. Scary! Mystery forests would be nothing and a Fungus forest which had no effect on the game.


DEPLOYMENT
Life Star: 28 Saurus with Oldblood and Slann. Scouts love this mission as we both set up behind the enemy army. Despite getting +1 I don't go first.


TURN 1
Brutal. My Engine of the Gods gets Warp Lightning Cannoned off the table. So cannons hit everything on a mount? 430 points poofed. 3 Cold One Riders shot dead by Doomwheel, handful of Saurus die to Poison Mortars... I was almost ready to give up.

My Chameleons kill the Warp Lightning Cannon. Revenge! Terradons crush the Gutter Runners with rocks leaving one survivor who breaks. During the game this little rat runs through Skinks, Saurus, and a Hell-Pit passing all DT tests, rolling a 3 to almost rally twice and finally runs off the board in turn 5. Slann casts Dwellers Below on the Stormvermin using 6 dice but no IF so it was scrolled. I cook some Stormvermin with my Salamanders. Cold Ones charge and see off the Doomwheel... for now.



TURN 2
Screaming Bell gets pushed into 24" range of the Life Star's front rank but 24" away from the Slann to avoid the Becalming Cogitation. Curse you pre-measure! 13th Spell Power scroll IForces as it does but results in only 8 dead Saurus as the miscast results in a Dimensional Cascade destroying the Greyseer and obliterating 20 Clanrats pushing the Bell. "I regret nothinggggg...!" HPA closes in. Saurus block flees from charging Plague Furnace. Salamanders flee from charging Assassin. The game of cat and rat begins... 2 more Cold One Riders die to Doomwheel shooting.

Everything rallies. The 2 remaining Cold Ones charge a unit of Slavens in the backfield who hold to fight but with no Greyseer general around to help their leadership they lose combat and are run down. Oldblood with the BoR declares a charge against the HPA who flees. Slann leaves the Life Star as he would now be forced to the front rank and casts Dwellers Below with IF which results in Detonation miscast but this means nothing as he's alone so I don't use Cupped Hands. Blowpipes blow and do 1 wound to the Assassin... fail.

TURN 3
HPA rallies. Warlord steps out to charge the Oldblood... I flee rather than face an I7 Fellblade with my un-potioned Oldblood. Warlord ends up rolling snake-eyes for charge distance. I'm furious at this as my Oldblood runs 10" away! Assassin charges Saurus spear block and challenges the Saurus Champion who declines... epic fail combat sees no one die but Assassin flees from the mighty banner and rank bonus and is run down. Doomwheel runs over the Chameleons... curse you compulsory movement negating charge reactions! Plague furnace charges Skink Skirmishers who flee through Terradons no panic no harm no one else for the Furnace to redirect too. I scroll a really high casting roll of Plague. Plague Mortars continue to claim Saurus as the casualties start to add up.

Salamanders and Oldblood rally. The Saurus spear block charge the depleted Stormvermin who flee. Other Saurus unit with Scar-vet charges Slavens who hold, lose, and get run down and kill 2 Mortar teams in their panicked retreat! Bonus! Slann casts Throne of Vines and gives +4 Toughness to Scar-vet Saurus using Flesh to Stone. Warlord gets shot down by S6 Awakening of the Wood (he had wounded himself twice already with the Fellblade.)

TURN 4
Rhellion remembers his Storm Banner and uses it... it will remain up all rest of the game so the Terradons just waddle around from here on out. Stormvermin keep on truckin'. Plague Furnace tries again to charge the Saurus who flee again. Doomwheel shoots down the last 2 Cold One Riders but hurts itself on the Ghost Fence. Then just when things start to look alright... something retardedly unfortunate happens. The Screaming Bell rolls up a Deafening Peel which inflicts D3 wounds on any model over T7 on the board. Not a big deal... UNLESS YOU HAVE AN ENTIRE UNIT OF FUCKING SAURUS WITH T8!!! So I'm left with the 3 Command Saurus and the Scar-vet fighting the HPA after armour saves. HPA don't like T8 Saurus and he fails to kill any and loses combat suffering 2 wounds but doesn't flee. Plague Priest throws 6 dice at the Plague and gets it off with like a 24 with no 6's and I fail to dispel it... a unit of Skink Skirmishers, a Terradon and several Saurus die as the contagion spreads among the Lizardmen's ranks.

The Saurus who have been running from the Plague Furnace almost all game fail to rally and come within 1/2" of fleeing off the board! Playing lengthwise FTW! The Oldblood closes in on the Plague Furnace seeking to BoRealities it. Magic phase continues to roll on with high numbers... Slann casts Dwellers Below on the Plague Monks with IF swallowing up a half dozen or so and passing on the Calamitous Detonation miscast with the Cupped Hands to the Plague Priest causing a few more casualties on the Plague-ridden rats... only 1 dice is lost from the pool. Saurus get some Flesh to Stone T8 love again and fight the HPA to a standstill.


TURN 5
Stormvermin flee again. Doomwheel forgets to move and is pretty much out of the game. Plague furnace attempts to charge Salamanders who flee... charge redirect to the Slaan but it's a long shot... Slaan holds... Plague Furnace charge fails by a lot. HPA eats the Saurus banner but combat is another stale-mate leaving just the Champion and Scar-vet and 3 wounds on the HPA. Plague is cast again with a high non-IF roll and again the Slann fails to dispel and more Saurus spear warriors die leaving just 5 of the once 28 strong block of warriors but the plague then bounces to the Clanrats with the BSB who lose a dozen to the out of control Pestilen's magics! Throne of Vines is dispelled by the Priest.

Salamanders rally and Saurus who have fled from the furnace rally at the table edge on a solidly cold-blooded 8... HUGE! Oldblood charges the Plague Furnace to be challenged by the Monk Champion... grrrrr. The Slaan puts up Throne of Vines and proceeds to go bonkers rolling 2 IForces in a row but ignores the miscast thanks to the Throne of Vines 2+. The Saurus fighting the HPA get 3 models back from Regrowth and the T8 boost again. The music dies again as the HPA kills the musician again and the remaining Saurus in a flurry of 6's... it was only a matter of time. Scar-vet holds like a champ.


TURN 6
Stormvermin flee off the board. HPA eats the brave Scar-vet. Clanrats fail to charge the 5 remaining Saurus. Now for the big rules debate: actually 2 rules debates. #1: Blade of Realities vs Skaven Strength in Numbers rule. I argue your own, unmodified leadership is what is on your stat-line... Rhellion says Strength in Numbers ALWAYS adds to your leadership no matter what per Skaven FAQ. We roll off and I win the debate. Now on to rules debate #2. The Plague Priest challenges my Oldblood and still gets to use the attacks from the Plague Furnace on my Old-blood but I can only attack the Plague Priest?!? What the hell is a Plague Furnace anyway? We could not find anything in the rules that allows me to attack what we consider the Plague Furnace to be... a monsterous mount in a challenge... so my Old-blood while murdering the Plague Priest was blasted apart by a number of S10 hits from the Plague Furnace he could not attack and was killed. Sweet.

No charges to declare. The Hypnotoad goes out in style with a box-cars Magic phase casting a mighty 24 non-IF Dwellers Below which devastates the Clanrats and he finishes them off with an Awakening of the Wood blasting. The Skink Skirmishers pin-cushin the last Screaming Bell Clanrat Champion who they had been whittling down for half the game.

The After-math

Magic was insane... I think the lowest roll was a 6 just one time.

The Skaven have the Screaming Bell, Plague Furnace, the HPA with 3 wounds, the Doomwheel with 1 wound, and about a dozen Plague Monks left.

I have my Slann, Scroll caddy Skink Priest, 5 Saurus w/ spears, the full Saurus unit that almost ran off the board, grounded Terradons, both Skink Skirmisher units and the Salamanders.

Tallying up the VPs I end up winning by a little over 100 points... not bad considering I get nothing for the Grey Seer or the Plague Priest because their 'mounts' are still alive. ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

Well this game has taught me a few things. 1: I probably will not be fielding an Engine of the Gods any time soon. Losing the thing to a 90 point cannon just isn't worth it... points are better used on more Salamanders and Saurus Warriors. 2: Blade of Realities on an Old-Blood needs to be riding with the Cold Ones and a Champion. While a Carnosaur would be ideal there just isn't enough points outside of 4000pt games where this will happen with a Slann.

I'm sure I got a few things out of order in the batrep. Rhellion was the one that actually took notes!

Blood Bowl: general tactics

I won my local Blood Bowl league (SEMBBL at http://www.stuntyleeg.com/) last night with my Undead team Tut's Nuts. I finished with a 6-1-0 record. After getting some pretty cold dice in the casualties caused by blocking category they turned hot in my last two games against some crunchy av7 Skaven and Norse teams. Luck has more then it's share in Blood Bowl but a lot has to do with positioning your players and mitigating risk so I've come up with a very general set of tips really quick that I use when playing but YMMV. My own 9 step program as it were:

1. The Basics. Stand up guys and do all moves first that need to be done. Do the most important blocks or blitz first (unless of course a move or blitz depends on the outcome of another block.) Avoid single dice blocks, but sometimes they aren't all that bad if for example your player has Block and the guy he hits doesn't... Basically anything that only has a 50% chance of success probably shouldn't be attempted (like dodging with AG2) unless failure wouldn't matter or if you are desperate. Save fouls for last.

2. The Coin Toss. In the hundreds of games I've played I can't recall the last time I have ever wanted to not receive the kickoff. You get to dictate the pace of the game and you get the first chance at gaining a numerical superiority on the pitch by placing the first blocks and fouls.

3. Pace. Unless you are a quick scoring team (elves, skaven, etc.) or are getting pummeled after a few turns then what's the rush in trying to score? Stalling (which is the art of NOT scoring even if you can) because you have a numbers advantage or to give your opponent less than 2 turns to score is a key tactic to master. Of course it's fun to engage in an elf-bowl style shoot-out from time to time, but personally I like more blood in my Blood Bowl. More blocks for me = more blood!

4. Fouling. Get as many assists as you can and foul as much as you can (worrying about doubles getting you ejected is for sissies!) Don't waste a good foul on some skilless player though, target the best prone player. Fouling is to be done by YOUR skilless player... unless he has Dirty Player or Sneaky Git then he is a skilled fouler, haha. Fouling on the last turn of the game is considered poor sportsmanship unless the player being fouled is an abomination (like a one-turn scorer, or any elf or dwarf.)

5. Protect the Ball. Position players anticipating you will fail a pickup. Learn to form a proper cage. For high speed and AG teams spread out and put multiple players threatening to score in your opponents half of the field while keeping the ball carrier out of blitz range, etc. Basic stuff.

6. Protect your best players. Leaping the AG5 War Dancer into the middle of a cage or orcs may seem cool, but it's a good way to get dead. Protect key players (usually the skilled guys that score or maybe that guy with the chainsaw...), don't follow up on a block if it will put you at a disadvantage.

7. Defense... and more Defense. There is rarely any reason to put more then 3 players on the line unless you like having your players hit or maybe have a LARGE numerical advantage against an agility team. Anyway, make sure it's your WORST 3 players. Group them together, they will take less hits that way... in other words if the end guy gets pushed then your opponent can't push him somewhere to hit him again unless he wants to blitz or maybe got a Quick Snap but I digress...

To stop someone from advancing place your guys like so from the sideline: empty square (don't put anyone by the sideline!), guy, empty square, empty square, guy, empty square, empty square, guy. Then put guys immediately behind those guys in the same pattern... it's easy to blitz one guy out of the way and move past... it's impossible if another guy is right behind him without making multiple dodges to get past.

8. Hit and Run. If you can't stop an opponent from scoring or are getting pummelled then run away, isolate an opposing player or two, and gang foul them. Do this especially if they are stalling... hell you should probably just do it anyway.

9. Skillz. Basically Block is the most useful skill to have but if the player is AG4 take Dodge 1st then Block. Block + Dodge together (Blodge) is useful on anyone and greatly increases that players survivablility, so if a double is rolled on someone that normally can't have Agility skills then Dodge is never a bad choice. Always take +STR, and almost always take +AG (depends on the player) if rolled. If bashy then load up on Guard and Mighty Blow (there are exceptions such as Break Tackle for Lizardmen but this is general advice). If not then Side Step and Fend are good. It always pays to have atleast one guy with Kick and/or Dirty Player and a few with Tackle.

Hope these help, if someone wants me to elaborate on specific team builds or other tactics then let me know I've got several hundreds of games worth of experience to pull from :-)

Forgeworld Runtbot

Who wants to go to England and get me one?



More pics here: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/runt.htm