Alamo GT 2013: Scenario Review

The Alamo GT is almost upon us (Yay!). Today, I will be going over the Alamo GT scenarios and explain my plan to get the bonus points from each scenario. Let's dive in.

Standard rules for all scenarios: Normal 12" deployment with 100 victory points to win. A win net's 16 battle points for the scenario, a draw nets 8, and a loss 4. Each scenario has a bonus objective worth 4 battle points. So, if a person wins all their games and gets all the bonus points they will recieve 100 battle points. Looking at the scenarios, I don't expect this to happen. Actually, I don't expect anyone to even get all of the bonus objective points. They are just that difficult to get.

West Coast Warhammer: State of the Union 2013

Well, it has been a little over a year since I started this blog. In that time, I have managed to write a little over 100 posts (about 2 a week), have gained over a dozen active followers (awesome, and thank you), and had over 20,000+ hits of traffic (sweet). Looking back, I can see large gaps where I wasn't writing anything for a while and can really see the lag between large tournaments and the battle reports. That is something that I plan on fixing in the coming year.

I started this blog last year before the Alamo GT to give me a place to put some thoughts down and to write some decent (hopefully) battle reports. I started to move away from the "whys" of the reports - why I was focusing on something, why I was moving or cast a specific spell, etc. -  and more towards just what happened in the game. Although these are fun to read, I am going to go back to focusing more on why I made certain play decisions in my games (along with far more pictures) as I document my Alamo games so that I both get better as a player by recognizing what I am doing and so that you can comment on whether or not my actions seemed worth it.

I also want to start focusing more on other aspects of the hobby, including interviewing other top players after their games and taking pictures of people's armies. I may even get around to uploading some video of certain events. I still want to focus on the tournament play of the hobby, but I just haven't been getting in the practice games I need to stay as competitive as the new books drop. This is also something I hope to remedy in the coming year.

As we approach and pass the Alamo GT, I hope to institute these changes to increase both readership and content. I will slowly be working on making the site look better, getting involved with some of the gaming blog networks (as I have sufficient content and time on the web) and building a better on-line presence with Warhammer players throughout the United States and the world, and not just my own little corner of the hobby-sphere.

Let's get it on!

Alamo GT Update

So with lists due only a few days away, I received an e-mail that the old Dark Elf army book would be used at the tournament to give the Dark Elves a final going away party. With that, I need to start working on an army list from the prior book and wipe my mind of all the awesome new rules the Dark Elves got. I hope to have a first run army list up and ready for review tomorrow.

I know that it will be similar to the army I took to QCR 2013 (as it is already painted, but will have some minor item changes on things I found to be less useful, and include some unit changes to make the army fit more of a specific play-style rather than the mishmash I had at QCR with a combination of fight, shoot, and flight.

Dark Elf Thoughts #2

A couple more days with the book, a couple more thoughts on the Dark Elves. This time, I take a more in-depth look at the character choices, including the new magic items.

Dark Elf Army List (Update #2)

Here is the most recent army list that I am beginning to tinker with:

Lords: (601/625 points)
Dreadlord (291 points)

• Lance, Heavy Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Charmed Shield, Cloak of Twilight, Dawnstone, Dark Pegasus

Supreme Sorceress (310 points)

• Level 4, Lore of Death, Dark Steed, Talisman of Preservation, Dispel Scroll

Heroes: (560/625 points)
Death Hag (290 points)

• Cry of War, Cauldron of Blood

Master (157 points)

• Battle Standard Bearer, Ring of Hotek, Heavy Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Shield

Master (113 points)

• Heavy Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Shield, Lance, Dragon Bane Gem, Potion of Foolhardiness, Repeater Crossbow

Core: (745/625 points)
Witch Elves (375 points) (30 models with full command, Banner of Swiftness (+1 movement))
Dark Riders (110 points) (5 models with musician, shields and repeater crossbows)
Dark Riders (110 points) (5 models with musician, shields and repeater crossbows)
Darkshards (150 points) (10 models with musician, standard with Banner of Eternal Flame)

Special: (1244/1250 points)
Executioners (336 points) (28 models with full command)
Shades (108 points) (6 models with great weapons)
Cold One Chariot (115 points)
Cold One Chariot (115 points)
Reaper Bolt Thrower (70 points)
Reaper Bolt Thrower (70 points)
Reaper Bolt Thrower (70 points)
War Hydra (180 points) (Fiery Breath)
War Hydra (180 points) (Fiery Breath)

Rare: (375/625 points)
Bloodwrack Medusa (90 points)
Doomfire Warlocks (125 points)
Kharibdyss (160 points)

Right now with my beginning first list of models that I like, I am well over points (but at least with appropriate ranges). Putting everything I want puts me at over 3500 points so I still need to cull about 1000 points from the list. I don't want to drop the two combat blocks, and because I am taking witches I want to take the Cauldron. I really like the Doomfire Warlocks (and they let me get away with not having a Level 2 mage). I am looking at dropping the core to exactly 625 points and the two chariots which frees up some points. The medusa is good against some armies, broken against others, and useless against others. But it is only 90 points, so who knows? I could easily make up the points by dropping the Dreadlord, but then the Leadership monsters also have to go as none of them are Immune to Psychology and I really like them.

I could switch to a heavy shooting build that drops the witches, but then the executioners will get all the focus. I just need to sit down and test lists to see what works and what doesn't.

BAO 2013: Round #3 - Wood Elves

For Round 3 of BAO, I played Troy Perez and his Wood Elf army.


Troy (this guy on the left) was playing a very different Wood Elf build from mine. He was playing the Eternal Guard and Treekin-bus army which is a good army against heavy troop lists (especially Skaven), but was going to have a tough time handling my cavalry and small unit list.

Having played many Wood Elf versus Wood Elf games, I have found that the player with more shooting comes out on top, and this game was no different.

Dark Elf Army List (Update #1)

With this progression of posts I will show what I am currently adding to my army list for the Alamo GT at the start of November. Each update will include new units, changes, and reasons why I felt the need to add or drop items, units, etc.

Here are the units that I am currently planning on bringing to the Alamo GT:

Dark Elf Thoughts #1

Well, the new Dark Elf book is out now, and although there has already been lots of discussion on various forums and podcasts, I wanted to take a look at what I thought were the major changes in the book, as well as my though process as I begin to design my army list for the Alamo GT. Here we go!

Painting Contest Progress #3

Another few days have passed, and a little bit more time was spent on the paint competition miniature. Here is my progress:

New Stuff: Dark Elf Army Book

On Saturday morning (tomorrow), I go to pick up the new Dark Elf Army Book. I will be playing Dark Elves at this year's Alamo GT and army lists are due October 24th. This gives me about three weeks to really go over the book and get an army designed (with what I have and can paint in such a short time). I will update this blog on the army design choices and everything else going on as I prepare for the Alamo. Let's get going!

Painting Contest Progress #2

A little more than a week has passed since I worked on either paint contest model. The models are due Saturday and I don't think I am going to be able to finish them both. So, I made an executive decision to finish one of the models (even if it is not perfect) so that I have accomplished something. With that being said, here is the progress I have made in the last two nights.

Painting Contest Progress #1

So as I posted a little while ago, I have been working on two models for an upcoming paint contest. I generally don't enter paint contests with delusions of winning, but I find that each time my painting gets a little bit better. As such, I enter the contests to see if I can't place a little higher or try out a new painting technique. These pictures are about a week old, and much more progress has occurred, but I have been busy. And without further ado, here is my progress so far: