Warhammer U.S. Masters 2016: Army List

The 2016 Warhammer Fantasy U.S. Masters tournament is only a few days away. This year it is being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will be the last time that 8th Edition is played on a major tournament level.

As I wanted one more time to try and prove that Wood Elves can build decent lists for the 20-0 system, I settled on a high comping Wood Elf list that focuses on reducing the possible number of points that an opponent will be able to get without also suffering major damage in return.

My list is as follows:

Quake City Rumble 2015: Tournament and Game Overview (Part 2)

Welcome back! And without much ado, I present Part 2 of my Quake City Rumble tournament overview. I hope you enjoy this post as much as the last one.

Quake City Rumble 2015: Tournament and Game Overview (Part 1)

The Quake City Rumble was recently held on July 24-26, 2015. QCR is the largest five-round Warhammer Fantasy tournament on the West Coast and is held in San Francisco, California. This year, the tournament moved from the Fort Mason Center near the waterfront to the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. This was a great change. The new venue was much closer to food and libations as well as better lodging opportunities. It was also a better spot for the tournament. The room that we were in had increased air flow to alleviate the unbearable heat and stench that usually appears in a room of a hundred gamers, had better bathrooms (which didn't require a stair climb), and was a much nicer place to hang out (as the botanical gardens were right outside the venue). I hope the tournament stays at this venue next year as it made for a much more pleasing gaming experience that past venues. The tournament was also using the new Fat Mats made by Frontline Gaming which made dice rolling and miniature moving much more pleasant than the old sand boards.

Quake City Rumble 2015: Army List

For the last major 8th Edition Warhammer tournament on the West Coast, the Quake City Rumble (or as it came to be known over the weekend, the Wake City Rumble), I wanted to play a truly interesting and hard-as-nails Wood Elf army (or at least as hard-as-nails Wood Elves can be in the current meta in an un-comped environment). My list for the tournament was a play on the no-drop army list that hit the internet when the Wood Elf book first came out. My list was made up of the following units:

Lords:

Spellweaver - (350 pts) (Level 4, Lore of Heavens, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Preservation, and riding a Unicorn)

Heroes:

Glade Captain - (158 pts) (Battle Standard Bearer, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem, Hail of Doom Arrow, Shield, Great Weapon, Starfire Shafts, Elven Steed)

Waystalker - (115 pts) (Bow of Loren, Ironcurse Icon)

Waystalker - (115 pts) (Ruby Ring of Ruin)

Waystalker - (90 pts)

Core:

Glade Riders - (140 pts) (5 models, full command, Hagbane Tips)

Glade Riders - (250 pts) (10 models, full command, Hagbane Tips)

Glade Riders - (250 pts) (10 models, full command, Hagbane Tips)

Special:

Deepwood Scouts - (190 pts) (10 models, full command, Hagbane Tips)

Deepwood Scouts - (190 pts) (10 models, full command, Hagbane Tips)

Deepwood Scouts - (224 pts) (12 models, full command, Starfire Shafts)

Rare:

Waywatchers - (210 pts) (10 models, champion)

Waywatchers - (210 pts) (10 models, champion)

The first thing that you might notice from this list is that there is only a single normal deployment drop: the two mounted characters. I was playing around with the no-drop list, but in an un-comped environment, I find that I need some magic offense and defense with Wood Elves and a Level 4 of High Magic on a Unicorn really fits that bill. With the 4+ ward save and Magic Resistance 2, it is really hard to kill the Level 4 and all the bonus tokens generated from High Magic also helps keep the Battle Standard Bearer alive throughout the game as the two characters can form a unit together that spends the first several turns hiding until enemy warmachines and shooting are removed from play. In fact, over the course of five games, I never lost either model.

The three Waystalkers are a lot of fun and are absolutely clutch to pick characters (especially low level wizards and 1+ armor save BSBs from large units of troops). The waywatchers help drop heavy armor. The mass amount of poisoned shots help take out monsters, chariots, and warmachines while the flaming attacks help take down regenerating units. The army is pretty straightforward in how it plays. The scouting units set up to take on the weakest flank or where they can score quick and easy points while not giving up their own points. Then the Glade Riders show up after my opponent's battle line has been pulled apart. 

I really wished I would have play tested this list before submitting it as I feel I could have performed better than I did, but the list itself is a very solid list and is frustrating for opponents to play against which is something I have always looked for after playing against so many all chariot, flying monster armies. 

West Coast GT 2015: Tournament Overview

The West Coast GT 2015 is over (a long ass time ago now) and a great time was had by all (or at least me, as I was in the running for overall into the very last game). As usual, the tournament was held at the Elk's Lodge in Mission Viejo which has its own bar. And as usual, any tournament that has a bar in the venue will be one of my favorites. This year was no exception.

U.S. Warhammer Fantasy Masters 2015: Tournament Overview

Depending on how active you are on the various Warhammer Forums, particularly the U.S. forum wargamersusa.com you may have heard a myriad of opinions about the U.S. Masters. Some decry that six games (four on Saturday) was too long. Others complain about the quality and armies from certain regions (most of which have never played this style of Warhammer before). And then there are the guys like me, whose main complaints relate to travel expenses and travel time, poor game decisions, and bad match-ups, but whose overall opinion of the tournament is that it is something work keeping and working to better with each year.

This post will not only go over my six (yes, six) Master's games for the weekend, but will also provide some information and opinion on the tournament itself. So be prepared for random comments and asides in my battle reports.

West Coast GT 2015: Army List

The West Coast GT is next weekend, and it is using Swedish comp as the comp bracketing system. You can bring any list you want as long as it comps higher than a 6. The kicker, though, is that for your overall comp score they double the score you bring to a maximum of 30. Thus, if you bring a 6 your score towards overall will be a 12 (missing out on 18 points that you will have to make up elsewhere) while if you bring a 15 your score will be a 30 (and you will have to work hard to not give up as many battle points). However, in comparison to true Swedish, the difference between your Swedish scores does not result in bonus victory points in the game. (Why Bill? Why?)

Seeing this system, I decided to go with a list that was higher in comp, but that could also conserve points and get minor wins so that I can eek out small wins but still place decent in the tournament. My list ended up with a solid 14.2 comp, and after playing with it and working it out, I feel that it is a better list than my Master's list. Now I wish I had gone with something more like this, as I think I would have done better over the course of the Masters tournament. This is what I am bringing:

Lords:
Spellweaver [335 pts] (-37 comp) (Level 4, High Magic, Talisman of Preservation, Hex Scroll, Elven Steed)
Glade Lord [267 pts] (-8 comp) (General, Shield, Starfire Shafts, Ogre Blade, Armor of Destiny, Dragonbane Gem, Elven Steed)

Heroes:
Glade Captain [166 pts] (-17 comp) (Battle Standard Bearer, Asrai Spear, Starfire Shafts, Charmed Shield, Opal Amulet, Hail of Doom Arrow, Elven Steed)
Glade Captain [141 pts] (-4 comp) (Starfire Shafts, Sword of Anti-Heroes, Helm of the Hunt, Elven Steed)
Spellsinger [105 pts] (-8 comp) (Level 1, Lore of Metal, Scroll of Shielding, Elven Steed)

Core:
Dryads [198 pts] (-3 comp) (18 models)
Glade Guard [215 pts] (-8 comp) (13 models, musician, standard bearer, Trueflight Arrows)
Glade Guard [215 pts] (-8 comp) (13 models, musician, standard bearer, Hagbane Tips)

Special:
Sisters of the Thorn [253 pts] (-25 comp) (8 models, full command, Lichebone Pennant)
Wild Riders [178 pts] (-9 comp) (6 models, standard bearer, shield)
Wild Riders [178 pts] (-12 comp) (6 models, standard bearer, shield)
Deepwood Scouts [102 pts] (-3 comp) (6 models, Starfire Shafts)

Rare:
Waywatchers [140 pts] (-11 comp) (7 models)

Arrow penalty: (glade lord 1, HoDa 5, glade captain 1, trueflight 13, hagbane 14, scouts 6, waywatchers 14) = 54 no penalty
Fast Cavalry: (glade lord 1, spellweaver 1, bsb 1, captain 1, spell singer 1, sisters 8, wild riders 6, wild riders 6) = 25 (-5 comp penalty) (running comp score: 142)

Total points: 2493
Total Comp: 14.2

Now its time to bring some pain to the West Coast GT!

U.S. Warhammer Fantasy Masters 2015: Army List

So the Masters was over a month ago, but I never got around to posting my list. Going into the tournament, as it was a true Swedish tournament (where you get the difference between the army composition score in bonus victory points) I wanted to come in as high as I possible could. With that thought in mind, I built a Wood Elf list that came in at a maximum 14. Here is what I came up with:

Spellweaver [335 pts] [-31 comp] (General, Level 4, Lore of Heavens, Siverjir's Hex Scroll, Talisman of Preservation, Elven Steed)

Glade Captain [156 pts] [-17 comp] (Battle Standard Bearer, Asrai Spear, Starfire Shafts, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem, Hail of Doom Arrow, Elven Steed)

Spellsinger [130 pts] [-12 comp] (Level 1, Lore of Metal, Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring of Ruin)
Branchwraith [-75 pts] [-5 comp] (Level 1, Lore of Life)
Branchwraith [-75 pts] [-5 comp] (Level 1, Lore of Life)
Branchwraith [-75 pts] [-5 comp] (Level 1, Lore of Life)

Glade Guard [-225 pts] [-8 comp] (unit of 13 with Trueflight Arrows, full command)
Glade Guard [-220 pts] [-8 comp] (unit of 12 with Hagbane Tips, full command)
Glade Guard [-212 pts] [-6 comp] (unit of 12 with Starfire Shafts, musician, standard bearer)

Deepwood Scouts [190 pts] [-6 comp] (unit of 10 with Starfire Shafts, musician, standard bearer)
Deepwood Scouts [156 pts] [-4 comp] (unit of 8 with Starfire Shafts, musician, standard bearer)
Wild Riders [178 pts] [-9 comp] (unit of 6 with shields, standard bearer)
Wild Riders [178 pts] [-12 comp] (unit of 6 with shields, standard bearer)
Sisters of the Thorn [-253 pts] [-25 comp] (unit of 8, full command, Lichebone Pennant)

Great Eagle [50 pts] [-5 comp]

There is the army in all its mediocre glory. I am working on a post about my masters games, but I can state, without any doubt, that this army under performed and that with a little play testing I could have come up with something better roughly for the same composition score. In fact, I did with the list that I am taking to the West Coast GT (which comps a solid 14.2, but still manages to have some Waywatchers in the list).

Reader Question

It's been a while since I had checked the blog's e-mail and was surprised to see a couple of new questions. As I haven't had an opportunity to answer many questions lately, I thought I would post the question and answer it here. Note, I did answer the e-mail directly, but thought that the topic would be a good post.

This is the gist of what I received:

"I'm pulling out my Wood Elves and looking for list ideas/help, particularly with computing Swedish composition. I am having trouble understanding how composition is calculated on all the arrows/archers. Here is what I am thinking of for a coming tournament, and I think it is going to get comped really hard.

Lords:Spellweaver - Lv4, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Preservation, Longbow, Shadow magic ( seems like a hard comp hit ) 

Heroes:Glade Captain - Hail of Doom Arrow, Enchanted Shield, Opal Amulet, ALongbow, ASpear, BSB, ESteed 

Core:17x Glade Guard - Trueflight,  Gleaming Pen, Musician
10x Glade Guard - Trueflight , Musician
10x Glade Guard - Trueflight , Musician 

Special:9x Wild Riders - Shields, Flame banner
7x Wild Riders - Shields
7x Wild Riders - Shields
3x Warhawk Riders
5x Deepwood Scouts - Starfire 

Rare:Great Eagle
10x Waywatchers
10x Waywatchers 

Any thoughts/ideas to help make it a little bit more comp friendly while maintaining its power? 

Also, I'd like to throw the Mask of Eeee in the list as a Terror bomb item. What do you think? What do you think of the "frog scroll?" What do you think of the Lore of Undeath, both in general and for certain various armies out there?"

It was an interesting question. I don't generally get people asking me about army lists, but it seems with my near constant focus on Swedish Composition and the general trend towards more tournaments using the system, that my limited knowledge is being requested. Here is what I told the reader:

Thank you for all your comments and feedback about the blog. It is a big commitment and it is always worthwhile to know that someone is reading and enjoying it. I like your Wood Elf list, and in an uncomped environment, I believe that it would perform very well. Unfortunately, as this point it really gets nailed in the Swedish system. Take a look at how this army currently comps:

Shadowweaver (-47), BSB (-17), 17 man GG unit (-8), 10 man GG unit (-8), 10 man GG unit (-8), 9 man Wild Rider unit (-19), 7 man Wild Rider unit (-17), 7 man Wild Rider unit (-23), warhawks (-6), deepwood scouts (-3), great eagle (-5), 10 man Waywatcher unit (-17), 10 man Waywatcher unit (-29), fast cavalry penalty (-7), shooting penalty (-43), scout penalty (-5) for a total composition score of 3.6. This score is lower than the 6 point minimum for most Swedish composition tournaments.

Here are a few recommendations for scaling the list back and giving it a better composition score without loosing too much power. First, take the Wild Riders to units of 6. In units of 6, they aren't comped nearly as hard (see -9 versus -14 or more) for the loss of only a single model in some of your units. At six you also aren't losing that much hitting power because very few units will have frontage large enough for all seven Wild Riders to attack and you don't want to waste models on the charge. The unit of 9 I believe is unnecessary in your list because you are not taking combat characters to back the unit up as a main combat bus. Especially as the unit itself does not have a ward save and will put a big target on the toughness 3, 4+ save unit from enemy archers and magic missiles. Part of the strength in the Wild Riders is that they are cheap enough to have multiple units that hit hard, but that don't draw your opponents focus. A unit of 9 would definitely become a priority target. Just taking these units down to three units of 6 each with shields saves you over 25 comp points and brings the list over a 6. (First unit costs -9, second unit -12, third unit -18 and a reduction in the fast cavalry penalty).

Second, the archers should either be one large unit of Trueflight (like around 20 to 23) or two units of Trueflight (one at 13 and one at 12). This allows you to maximize the Trueflight arrows without taking the additional penalty for over 25 models with either Trueflight or Hagbane. I would then take another unit of archers at probably 12 (keeping with your original number of 37 archers) and give them either Swiftshiver of Starfire arrows depending on your meta. If you think there will be lots of elves, Tomb kings, or low toughness armies I would go with Swiftwhiver. If you think there will be a lot of Daemons or Warriors of Chaos, I would take Starfire to help kill monsters. Neither of these archer types takes an additional composition penalty, and is actually cheaper, comp wise, than a unit of Trueflight arrows which will save you a few points. Keeping your total number of Trueflight archers to twenty-five will also save you in the archer penalty. From your original list to the example above you would save roughly 28 comp points (you save a lot in the archer penalty because each model with Trueflight over 25 counts as two archers). Making this change with the Wild Rider change above, and your list is already in the 8 range which is much higher than the original list and without too many tweaks or really reducing the army's power too much.

These are just two ideas that would really swing this list into playable territory at Swedish Comp tournaments.

As you your question about the Mask of Eee. I don't think it would be useful in this list. You aren't running a bunker, and there aren't many armies out there that can't get around a terror bomb. You basically need to add another cheap character to use this effectively without losing too many points, and I just feel that there will be too many times where a unit makes its check and you are now stuck charging a unit that will easily kill a Wood Elf character. Now if this was like 7th Edition when you could terror bomb units within 6" I would say go for it. But in 8th edition, with the list style you have going, I think it is a waste of 25 points plus the character cost.

Oh, the Hex Scroll. I love the hex scroll. I try and find a way to put this into most of my lists if I am at least running two mages. This is one of the funniest items in the game, and though it does cost a whopping 50 points in an Arcane item slot (where most of the best items in the game hang out), this item can be absolutely game changing. A warlock bus with characters is getting to close to your lines? Well turn a warlock into a frog and now the unit can only move 1". Daemon prince too close? Frog it and watch it die to mass shooting. Because the hex scroll drops all the models stats to 1 and they lose magic items, etc. it really is game changing, even if they don't become a frog. This item stops wizards from trying low level spells that are not as game changing because your opponent is worried that you will just let it through and turn them into a frog ruining the rest of their phase. I really love any item that forces your opponent to change his battle strategy and I think that this is one of the best items to do so.

Finally, as to the Lore of Undeath. I think that it is a really great and interesting lore. It definitely has its place in the tournament scene and certain armies can really make use of it more than others. The best army, of course, is Tomb Kings which can make sure it is generating enough dice to really put a couple of units on the board each turn. I have also seen it used with particular effectiveness with armies like Bretonnians which need to guarantee certain combats. Throwing up some ethereal creatures around the board to block flanking avenues is a great trick for that army. But, I find that for most armies, it becomes secondary to the regular caster. Most other armies have some weakness that a particular magical lore can help fix, but the Lore of Undeath is not a fixing lore. It doesn't help your own troops becomes better or hurt your opponents troops. Instead, it creates units on the board to bottle neck your opponent or bog them down. This can be useful, but because the spells are cost intensive, unless you have a way to maximize spell dice each phase, you are probably only going to get one spell off each turn (if lucky). I thought about the Lore of Undeath in Wood Elves to help offset certain match-ups, but I just couldn't find the dice to throw at the spells. I always wanted to some spell from another lore because it would benefit me immediately rather than in a turn or two.

I hope this answers your questions.


As usual, if you have any questions about Warhammer, or army lists, or the like, you can always e-mail me at westcoastwarhammer[at]gmail[dot]com. I always answer my e-mails, even if a little late. And if the question or topic is good, you may see your question up on the blog.

Waaagh!Paca 2015: Army List

Last week I submitted my army list for Waaagh!Paca 2015 and I can say that I am very pleased with my final decision. This year I am going to play one of the new army lists from the End Times book, the army of the Eternity King. This list allows me to play both my dark elves and wood elves in the same army (and had I any high elves, I would have probably found a way to add them in too). Being able to take models from both the wood elves and dark elves allowed me to increase my overall shooting potential while still having solid magic and close combat phases for most of my games. Here is what I will be bringing to Waupaca, WI later this month:

West Coast Qualifier: Tournament Overview

The West Coast qualifier was a three round 2500 point tournament using the 2015 U.S. Master’s rule pack. In the first round, each player was paired against another player with a similar composition score. As my list was a 14, I knew I would be playing one of the other four players with a 14. Ultimately, I was paired against Southern California’s Zack Lopez.

Round #1: Zack Lopez - Warriors of Chaos
Zack’s list was a hard-hitting (for a 14) Nurgle-based warriors list. His list included a Chaos Lord mounted on Chaos Dragon, two exalted heroes on daemonic mount, a level 2 chaos sorcerer with Lore of Nurgle, a few warhound units, marauder horsemen with flails, two chariots of Nurgle, a twelve man strong unit of warriors marked Nurgle, and a flying, breath-weapon spewing Chimera.

Zack deployed in a solid battle line with his focus on the center of the board. His plan was obviously to rush forward and hit my archer blocks which were spread out at the bottom of my deployment zone. I won the roll to go first, which allowed me to rush my Wild Rider units onto Zack’s flanks and start peppering his units with bowfire. In the first turn, between combined magic and shooting I was able to kill four of the knights to take them out of the game (the last knight would run around for the remainder of the game making unbelievable saves until the game ended), and drop two units of dogs.

Zack retaliated by swinging the Chimera to the flank to take on the Wild Riders with his breath weapon, but only managed to kill a single Wild Rider, leaving the five remaining Wild Riders to cause problems in his back field. Even though Zack would eventually get the Wild Riders, the unit pulled the Chimera out of position for the rest of the game.

Despite early progress, Zack and I only managed to finish four turns in the 2 ½ time limit. Luckily, the Wood Elf shooting with Harmonic Convergence did serious work. I eventually killed off the Chaos Lord and Dragon, the level 2, and most of the unit of warriors. At the end of the game I had lost a unit of Wild Riders and an eagle, but had managed to kill everything but the two exalted heroes, the nurgle warrior unit, the Chimera, one knight, and a chariot with a single wound. Another two turns and I think I would have gotten everything.

The game ended with over 1000 victory point difference in my favor, and I was on my way with a solid 17 point win!

Round #2: Jeremy “Effing” Campbell - Ogre Kingdoms
For Round 2 I played Jeremy Campbell and his Ogre Kingdom army. Jeremy’s army also came into the tournament with a 14 with a solid list. His army included a Slaughtermaster, a BSB, a Firebelly, a Butcher, three small units of Mournfang cavalry, a large unit of Maneaters with scout and poison, a few small units of basic Ogres, and an Irongut unit.

This game came down to two of Jeremy’s Ogre units single-handedly holding up the entire left-flank of my battleline including several of my key units like Way Watchers, two Trueflight glade guard units, and a unit of Wild Riders. Do to a tremendously short overrun of 3 inches against a single Ogre, a unit of Wild Riders was caught in the flank by the other unit and killed, which put Jeremy’s Ogre unit in position after reforming to charge the flank of the Way Watchers holding them up for the rest of the game. On the opposite flank, I couldn’t bring my bow power against the Maneaters as poor rolling for the first four turns of the game allowed the Ironguts to get into my line.

By the end of the game, I was able to take out two of the Mournfang units, all the Ironguts, the Slaughtermaster, and one unit of Ogres, but was not able to take down the BSB or the Maneaters which was where a large number of Jeremy’s points were. Luckily, I was able to keep most of my units alive including the Sister bus and the Spellweaver, but I did have to sacrifice a few units during the game. In the end, I took a small 8 point loss to go into game three with 25 out of 40 points.

Round #3: Josh Fricke - Daemons of Chaos
For Round 3 I played Josh Fricke’s Daemon army. Josh’s list included a Keeper of Secrets, a herald of Slaanesh, a fifty-two man unit of daemonettes, a unit of seekers, a unit of fiends, two units of furies, and two soul grinders. His list comped a 9.1 which meant that I got to start the game 490 victory points up. This gave me a huge advantage and pushed Josh to go on the offensive very early, pulling key units out of position.

Knowing how dangerous the spell Cacophonic Choir can be, I set up all my units so that the Keeper would not be able to cast it on anything important on the first turn so all Josh could do was move up fast to get ready for Turn 2. On my first turn, I placed every shot available into the Keeper taking off two early wounds. From then on, Josh’s Keeper was on the back foot and couldn’t throw too many dice at each spell attempt for fear of taking additional wounds from my Feedback Scroll.

Eventually, I was able to take out the Keeper with more combined shooting including the Hail of Doom arrow. I threw the dryads and a Branchwraith into the face of the daemonettes to keep them from the rest of my battleline while I slowly killed off everything else with combined shooting, magic, and Wild Rider charges. At the end, I was up over 1500 points to take the solid 20 giving me 45 battle points out of 60 to end the day. A solid score for second place for the tournament and a place at the U.S. Masters.

Overall List Thoughts:
After playing three games with this list I am happy with its overall performance, but the one game where I did not get Harmonic Convergence I definitely noticed my overall shooting effectiveness decreased significantly.

The Wild Riders performed as expected. They were great in most games, but every once in awhile they did something that cost me the unit before it made its points back. I did miss having shields on the units in one game, but most things that I went into combat against had high strength attacks so that shields wouldn’t have made a difference. I think that shields may be worth it in games against other elves, but I don’t know if it is worth the additional 4 comp points simply for a +1 armor save.

The Branchwraith’s performed as expected. I ended up with The Dwellers Below in all three games, but due to the nature of my opponent’s armies I never had a reason to cast the spell. But, I was able to use the Branchwraiths as sacrifices and speed bumps to protect my archer units. For only 75 points they performed well, but I am not sure that they are also worth the 15 comp points for all three of them. Though, I do think that they will be more effective against other armies, particularly where Dwellers would be more useful.

There is still a lot of list tweaking to do before Masters, but I am confident in both the Spellweaver with Lore of Heavens and the four units of shooting core. Another unit of Starfire Arrows may be the way to go over the unit of Arcane Bodkins, but only more play testing will tell.

West Coast Qualifier: Army List

For the West Coast qualifier, I was playing my Wood Elves. Wood Elves are one of my favorite armies, but for years they had problems competing in tournament environments. With the addition of the latest book, however, Wood Elves have gained some serious muscle.

Here is the list I went with, including cost for each unit in Swedish Comp:

• Spellweaver (General, Level 4, Lore of Heavens, Elven Steed, Feedback Scroll, Talisman of Preservation, Warrior Bane (-31 Swedish Comp))
• Glade Captain (Battle Standard Bearer, Elven Steed, Hail of Doom Arrow, Dragon Helm, Luckstone, Great Weapon, Starfire Shafts, Shield (-17 Swedish Comp))
• Spellsinger (Level 2, Lore of Metal, Channeling Staff, Ruby Ring of Ruin (-8 Swedish Comp))
• Branchwraith (-5 Swedish Comp)
• Branchwraith (-5 Swedish Comp)
• Branchwraith (-5 Swedish Comp)
• Glade Guard (10 models, Trueflight Arrows, Musician) (-7 Swedish Comp)
• Glade Guard (10 models, Trueflight Arrows, Musician) (-7 Swedish Comp)
• Glade Guard (10 models, Starfire Shafts, Musician) (-5 Swedish Comp)
• Glade Guard (10 models, Arcane Bodkins, Musician) (-5 Swedish Comp)
• Dryads (12 models) (-2 Swedish Comp)
• Sisters of the Thorn (8 models, Full Command, Lichbone Pennant) (-25 Swedish Comp)
• Wild Riders (6 models) (-7 Swedish Comp)
• Wild Riders (6 models) (-10 Swedish Comp)
• Great Eagle (-5 Swedish Comp)
• Great Eagle (-5 Swedish Comp)
• Way Watchers (7 models) (-11 Swedish Comp)

Total Army Points: 2492 pts.
Total Swedish Comp: 14

Wanting to take advantage of all the power the Wood Elf book packs, I went about trying to design a list that maximized my shooting potential while still providing some serious close combat hitting potential backed up by a solid magic base. As Swedish Comp penalizes the Lore of Death and the Lore of Shadow heavily for mounted elf mages, I decided to go with the Lore of Heavens on a Level 4 Spellweaver. My hope here was to get Harmonic Convergence to re-roll “1s” with my archer core, control my opponent’s board movement with Comet of Cassandora, and destroy my opponent’s chaff with Chain Lightning.

I went with a Level 2 of Metal so that I would have something besides the small Way Watcher unit to take on 1+ armor saves. Searing Doom is a great spell to take on Chimeras and other high toughness, multi-wound, decent armor save monsters that comp well in Swedish Comp (like ridden Dragons in particular).

I chose two units of Trueflight Arrows over Hagbane so that I could deal with other shooting units like Skinks, Way Watchers, and Shades, as well as the large number of low toughness skirmishing units that are floating around the game. Anything more than 25 models of Trueflight or Hagbane arrows is a serious composition hit, so to fill out the rest of my archers I took a unit of both Arcane Bodkins and Starfire Shafts to help drop 1+ armor saves and negate regeneration saves on Chimeras and trolls.

The Branchwraiths were a key component to making sure that I had access to The Dwellers Below in games against other elves, and choosing three of them made sure that I would be getting that spell in most of my games. I also liked the aspect of having additional cheap chaff units I could throw in front of the battle line to protect my archers. At only 75 points, these guys are awesome. They can take on most other similarly pointed chaff (especially on the charge) and can force nasty frenzied units into bad overrun positions saving my archer units for another shooting phase.

The rest of the army is fairly self-explanatory. Next time, I’ll go over my three games and show how the army performed.

Paint Blog: Sisters of Thorn (Part 1)

It's been a few months, but I have finally gotten some paint on some models. Right now I am working on the first group of five Sisters of the Thorn for my ever expanding Wood Elves army. My plan is to have a unit of ten completely finished (though I will probably only run 8 or 9 in a 2500 pt. game). This unit is going to be a mage and battle standard bunker run with the MR(1) banner giving the unit a pretty hardy 3++ against magic missiles and a 4++ against standard shooting. Anyways, rather than spend an article on tactics, let's take a look at how they are looking after a few hours of paint.

BAO 2013: Round #4 - Chaos Dwarves

[Note, this battle report is way, way overdue. In fact this game took place over year ago. But I promised that I would post it, and post it I am. Enjoy, even if late and in the old battle report format. And remember, I was still playing Wood Elves.]

For the Fourth Round of the BAO, I played Henry. This guy on the left. Henry is perhaps better known by his twitter handle @Johnnycrass in which he constantly engages in various Warhammer discussions and hobby projects.

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.

BAO 2013: Round #2 - Lizardmen

For Round 2 of the BAO I was playing Sean Smaker from Sacramento, California.

Sean (left) is a smart and fun player who plays a list with similar style to my all fast cavalry army, except his army is based around skirmished units of skinks.










I was surprised to see Sean as my opponent for Round 2 as I knew he was great player and usually ends a tournament with a winning record. It turned out that Sean had won his game, so instead of playing someone with a similar losing record, I got to play Sean. And not only had Sean won his game, but he did so with a full 150 points. So even with pulling me up from the losers bracket (at a mighty 75 points) I should never have played him. This was the third major fault of the tournament and the day wasn't even half over.

Sean's army for this tournament was a heavy skink list with lots of skirmishers and poisoned attacks. It is a very difficult army to get points off of, and he plays it extremely well. It is also beautifully painted and themed (as the pictures from our Round and at the bottom of the post will show). His army for the tournament was as follows:

SAWS 2013: Post Tournament Wrap-up

So a few weeks ago I attended the SAWS 2013 Warhammer Fantasy Grand Tournament. It was a good sized event with over 50 players. The tournament results are up and the winners of the event were:

Best Overall: Mike Hengl from Leadership 2
Best General: Mike Scaletti from Leadership 2
Best Sportsman: Mikko Carranza
Best Paint: Tony Pacheco from Leaderhip 2 and the Rage Quit Gaming podcast.
Best Comp: Me
Player's Choice: Tony Pacheco

This was an interesting tournament as there were a lot of really good players who were playing very different list builds, in part do to the tournament Comp system. The tournament ran on time, they provided food, and most people seemed to have a great time. I also got to play five games of Warhammer, although I didn't do nearly as well as I hoped to in the battle score (though I did end up tenth overall). My final breakdown was 158 total points (1st had 181) with 73 points in battle, 25 points in Sportsmanship, 42 points in army comp (winner!), and 18 points in presentation (because I need to finish painting everything).

Rather than do a Round by Round breakdown with full battle reports as usual, I am doing a much simpler write up on this tournament for several reasons. First, I'm far to busy to write full battle reports right now and I am still several battle reports behind from tournaments this year as I just moved into a new house that is taking up much of my time. Second, I spent a good amount of time hanging out with guys I don't get to see too often so my head was a little hazy all weekend. Finally, I just didn't bring the supplies I usually bring to the tournament to record everything. Though don't fret, I did get some great pictures from the event. 

Instead, I am going to just a give a quick overview of the rounds as well as the army lists that my opponent's were playing. 

Round #1: Jason Franks - Wood Elves

Jason didn't have an extra copy of his list so I don't have a full rundown, but his list did include the following:

• Treeman Ancient
• Treeman
• Level 4 Lifeweaver
• Large block of Treekin
• Dryads
• Several archer units

This battle came down to a few factors. First, I had about 30 more shots per turn than Jason did and so I was able to do lots more wounds to his units before they got into combat. Second, I was running Lore of Beasts and was able to use the Boosted version of Amber Spear to kill off both the Treeman and the Treeman Ancient. Finally, Jason cast the Dweller's Below on a unit of archers that had my general, level 4 mage, and battle standard bearer in the unit with irresistible force! Unfortunately for Jason, I passed all three strength tests with my characters and his Lifeweaver was sucked into the warp (on Turn 3). I ended up with a full 20 battle points for a maximum win with my objective of killing his spell casters.

Left: Jason





Round #2: Jeff Seuss - High Elves (Old Book)
Jeff was playing the old book High Elves which meant the White Lions got to re-roll all their missed "to hits" in combat. It also meant that I was facing really nasty magic. This was Jeff's list for the tournament:

• Archmage General, Level 4 of Shadow, Silver Wand, Loremaster's Cloak, Folariath's Robe
• Mage Level 2, High Magic, The Seerstaff of Saphery, Ironcurse Icon
• Noble BSB, Great Weapon, Armour of Caldeor, Guardian Phoenix
• Archers 15 models, Banner of Eternal Flame
• Archers 10 models, musician
• Archers 10 models, musician
• Archers 10 models, musician
• Spearmen 24 models, musician and standard bearer
• White Lions 24 models, full command, Amulet of Light, Banner of Sorcery
• White Lions 24 models, full command, The Other Trickster's Shard
• Sword Masters (5 models)
• Great Eagle
• Great Eagle

This list was brutal for my army. One unit of White Lions had magical attacks that could decimate my Dryads, and the other unit forced re-rolls on successful ward saves. Combined with the +2 armor save against shooting and I ended up losing almost every unit in my army. Plus, the Treeman died to a failed initiative test on turn 2. I knew looking at the list that there was nothing I was going to be able to do against this army. Loss by over 1000 points!

Round #3: Josh Fricke - Ogre Kingdoms
Normally, I don't have a problem playing against Ogres as I can easily kill an entire unit of Ironguts in a turn or two of close range shooting. This time, however, Josh got to play with some different toys that are allowed only at SAWS - Rhinox Riders! His list for the tournament was:

• Slaughtermaster General, Level 4, Gut Magic, Fencer's Blades, Glittering Scales, Crown of Command, Dragonbane Gem
• Bruiser Battle Standard Bearer, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of Preservation
• Butcher Level 2 of Heavens, Dispel Scroll
• Ironguts 10 models, full command, Standard of Discipline
• Gnoblars 30 models, musician
• Ogres 8 modles, full command
• Ogres 4 models, musician
• Sabretusk
• Sabretusk
• Rhinox Riders full command, Dragonhide Banner
• Ironblaster

I ended up killing all of the Ogres in the army except for the characters with my shooting. However, I couldn't get a boosted Amber Spear off all game, and lost half my army to the Rhinox Riders alone who also managed to nab my general (and the game) on the last turn because I failed a rear charge the turn before. I did manage to get my objective which was to kill more than half of the total number of enemy models (I pretty much accomplished this with the gnoblars alone). So a loss with objective points ended my Day 1.

Round #4: David Inman - Skaven
For the start of Day 2, I played Dave and his MSU-style Skaven list. The list is really fun to play against as it doesn't rely on all the normal toys like unbreakable units, but is designed to wear an army out over several turns of protracted combat with units with lots of attacks. His army for the tournament was as follows:

• Grey Seer General, Foul Pendant, Power Scroll, 1 Level Ruin, 3 Levels Pestilens
• Grey Seer 4 Levels of Pestilens, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Endurance
• Chieftan Battle Standard Bearer, Storm Banner, Shield
• Chieftan Shield, Ironcurse Icon
• Chieftan Halberd, Dragonbane Gem
• Warlock Engineer Doom Rocket
• Warlock Engineer
• Warlock Engineer
• Warlock Engineer
• Warlock Engineer
• Stormvermin 36 models, full command, Banner of the Under Empire
• Clanrats 26 models, full command, Shields
• Clanrats 26 models, full command, Shields
• Clanrat Slaves 21 models, champion and musician
• Clanrat Slaves 21 models, champion and musician
• Clanrat Slaves 21 models, champion and musician
• Giant Rats 25 giant rats, 5 pack masters
• Giant Rat Pack 5 giant rats, 1 pack master
• Giant Rat Pack 5 giant rats, 1 pack master
• Giant Rat Pack 5 giant rats, 1 pack master
• Giant Rat Pack 5 giant rats, 1 pack master
• Gutter Runners Poisoned Attacks, Slings
• Gutter Runners Poisoned Attacks, Slings
• Hell Pit Abomination Warpstone Spikes
• Warp-Lightning Cannon

This game really came down to two key factors: (1) my proper use of dispelling the correct spells each turn, and (2) Dave failing two charges in the same turn! In turn 3, Dave needed a "3" and a "4" on his unit of Stormvermin and Clanrat unit (with the BSB and one of the Grey Seers) to hit and disrupt my battleline. Dave failed both charges with "double 1s" and a "3," respectively. This left these two units within short range of 60 plus bowmen who made short work of both units in the next two shooting phases. Had Dave made either charge, or both, the game would have had a much different outcome. As it was, I walked away with a win with objective points.


Left: Dave





Round #5: Quentin "Q" Bohn - Wood Elves
Round 5 and the end of the tournament I played Q. He was also playing Wood Elves (so for those paying attention I played 2 of the other 3 Wood Elf players at a tournament of more than 50 players). His list was more combat oriented and included the following:

• Highborn General, Great Eagle, Spirit Sword, Dragonhelm, Stone of Crystal Mere, Potion of Foolhardiness
• Noble Battle Standard Bearer, Great Eagle, Armour of Silvered Steel, Dragonbane Gem
• Dryads 14 models with Champion
• Glade Guard 20 models with full command and Banner of Eternal Flame
• Glade Riders 6 models with full command
• Eternal Guard 20 models with full command
• Wild Riders 6 models with Musician and Standard Bearer, Gleaming Pennant
• Tree Kin 8 models
• Treeman
• Waywatchers 5 models

As is usual between Wood Elf armies, the one with the most shots usually wins. And as I "out gunned" Q four-to-one, this game was really in my favor. With a combination of magic (which Q didn't have) and magical and flaming shooting, I was able to destroy the Treeman and Tree Kin before they got into combat. My Treeman made it into combat with the Eternal Guard and slowly killed them over several turns. Finally, I was able to kill off all the characters with several turns of shooting. The game ended with a win with objective points.

So, at the end of the tournament I ended on a 3-2 record. Not bad, but not as great as I was hoping for. This tournament also signaled the last Hurrah of the Wood Elves as I begin working on my all Night Goblin army to get them ready for the Alamo GT 2013 in November.

To finish this post off, here are some pictures from the tournament. Dave's display board and army:

And here are some shots of Casey Clement's Empire army:

BAO 2013: Round #1 - Skaven

For Round 1 of the 2013 Bay Area Open, I played Chad Pond.

Chad is a member of the Barbarians gaming group out of California and also plays and travels with the Leadership 2 gaming group at several out-of-area tournaments.










Chad has been playing a very nicely conceived and painted Skaven army that is based around a Skaven clan having found and destroyed a Lizardmen stronghold. His army for this tournament included:

WaaaghPaca 2013: Round #5 - Empire

For the final round of WaaaghPaca 2013, I played Alex Davys and his beautiful (and powerful) Empire army. Somehow I managed to not get a picture of Alex and his epic mustache (I think it might have accidentally been deleted in the picture transfer).

Alex was playing a fairly standard Empire mounted build which included a solid foot-troop unit as a mage bunker and several hard-hitting mounted units. His list for the tournament was:

WaaaghPaca 2013: Round #4 - Ogre Kingdoms

For Round 4 of WaaaghPaca! 2013, I played Paul Wagner and his alternative Ogre Kingdoms army.

Paul, this guy over to the left with the happy grin on his face, is a fantastic player and gave me one of the more fun games of the weekend.










He was playing Ogres, normally something difficult for the Wood Elf army to deal with, but with an alternative list to the normal 'Gutstar, double Ironbreaker, Mournfang list. He was playing Mournfang, but the rest of his army was something I haven't seen in competitive play before. From what I can remember, this was his list:

Tyrant
Bruiser (Battle Standard Bearer)
Firebelly (Level 1, Arabyan Carpet)
Firebelly (Level 1)
Ogres (7 models with full command)
Ogres (8 models with full command)
Mournfang Cavalry (5 models with full command, Dragonhide Banner - I believe)
Sabretusk
Sabretusk

This list made for a small center deployment for Paul, but provided some serious combat potential between the unit of Mournfang and the two Ogre units (in which he put his combat characters). I liked the list, and it must have been doing fairly well for Paul at 2000 points, but I definitely feel that it is one of the less competitive Ogre builds that I have seen at tournaments (minus the 5 Mournfang of course - these things are just brutal!).

Pre-Game:

For this round, Paul and I were playing Blood and Glory with the following exception: the player with the most facial hair chooses table sides.

The "Man of Intrigue's" special rules were as follows:

• The "Man of Intrigue" is "the warrior." Any enemy unit charging the "Man of Intrigue's" unit suffers d6 dangerous terrain tests.
• The "Man of Intrigue's" unit may deploy the objective marker this game. The marker counts as two fortitude points if within 12" of the center of the board at the end of the game. The marker also causes an additional d6 dangerous terrain tests (on top of its normal d6 dangerous terrain tests) for any unit attempting to cross over the marker.

Battle points were awarded as follows:

• 3 battle points awarded for winning the game by more than 100 victory points.
• 2 battle points awarded for winning or losing the game by less than 100 victory points.
• 1 battle point is awarded for losing the game by less than 300 victory points.
• 0 battle points are awarded for losing the game by more than 300 victory points.
• An additional 1 battle point is earned for having more fortitude points than your opponent within 12" of the center of the board at the end of the game.

I had the most facial hair between and chose table sides. I chose the side where I had put down all of my stuff as the terrain on the board would be having very little effect on how I played out this scenario.

Going into this scenario, and after seeing Paul's list, I was a little concerned because we were both pretty close to the same fortitude. I knew I needed to wipe at least two of his units (or more, if possible) to win the game. But, I also knew that if I could kill two units, I would have the most fortitude in the center of the board at the end of the game and secure myself the bonus objective.

Before deployment, we rolled for spells. Paul chose to take Fireball with both of his Firebellies (pretty good choice against my small units of Dryads). My Spellweaver managed to roll-up Wyssan's Wildform, Flock of Doom, Amber Spear, and Savage Beast of Horrors (a good range of spells, especially for dealing with the Mournfang).

Deployment:
Paul deployed his army in a strong central position in hopes of taking control of the center of the board and bringing the battle to me. He deployed both Sabretusks on his flanks and placed the Firebelly on the carpet behind the building so that he could move into it on his turn. But his real battleline was the two units of Ogres flanking the five Mournfang.

That's one strong battleline! The second Firebelly was deployed in the unit on the left while the rest of the characters deployed in the unit on the right.










I deployed my army to counter Pauls. I deployed a strong archer base in the center protected on the flanks by Dryads. On the left flank I also deployed the large unit of archers with the Spellweaver to hopefully get a flank shot with Amber Spear.

At the start of the game, this is what my battleline looked like. A little ragged, but deployed so that I could easily move units around and into short range without losing more than a single unit to a charge.









The Game:
This was one of those games where Paul's dice were not with him. As such, a turn-by-turn breakdown does little to add to the outcome of this game. Rather, a general overview of what happened suffices to tell the tale of Paul's horrible luck.

I won the dice roll to go first and slowly, but surely, broke the Ogre army apart.

I moved my army forward in a rough semi-circle and let loose with everything I had. In the first turn, between magic and shooting, I managed to wound a Mournfang, kill one of the Sabretusks, and kill 3 Ogres from the Firebelly's unit.








In response, Paul declared a long charge with the Mournfang against a unit of Dryads but failed. His Ogres marched forward to get closer to my archers (bringing them within short range). Finally, his Firebelly flew into the building on the right side.

In his magic phase, a Fireball managed to kill a single Dryad from the unit looking to block the Ogres on the right.




Sensing an opportunity, I moved my archer units forward so that they were in close range of the Ogres on the right. I charged the left unit of Ogres with a unit of Dryads in the flank to hopefully kill the Firebelly. Finally, I reformed the large archer unit with the Spellweaver so that the Level 4 was in the Mournfang's flank.

Magic saw both Wyssan's Wildform cast on the Dryads in combat and an irresistible boosted Amber Spear kill three Mournfang, dropping the unit to only two models (but including the standard bearer so the unit was still dangerous). I killed the last Sabretusk, as well as three more Ogres in the right unit with shooting. Finally, in combat the Wildformed Dryads wounded the Firebelly and killed an Ogre, for only a single loss in return. I won the combat and the Ogres failed their break test. The Dryads then ran the Ogres down! The left side of the battlefield was now in my direct control.

Paul countered by charging the Dryads who caught the Ogres with the Mournfang and demolished them in a single round of combat. The other Ogre unit also charged a unit of Dryads, beat them, and chased them towards my right flank.

I responded by reforming my archer units so that Paul could not charge me on his turn and then proceeded to cast magic and shoot at his remaining units. With the combined might of the Altered Highborn, magic, and short range shooting I killed the last two Mournfangs.

Over the remaining turns, Paul kept moving to try and charge me, but good reforms and flee reactions prevented him from getting into combat. I continued to shoot at him until the only units left of the board at the end of Turn 6 were his Firebelly in the building and his Tryant.

I walked away from this game with another 4 point win raising my battle points total to 14. Paul took a zero point loss but accepted his defeat with dignity and a jolly attitude. He was a great opponent and ended up getting my favorite opponent vote for the tournament. I look forward to playing him again in a game where the dice rolls are a little more even.