Paca Prep #1

Soon the holidays will be over and it will be time to slim down.  No, not losing the winter weight gained in an excess of Egg Nog consumption, football watching, grazing on all the tasty sweets, and the occasional gluttonous meal as a response to having to spend time with the in laws.  Rather, we are closing in on the Waagh Paca Tournament.  To participate, I will need to slim down my normal 2,500 point army to a svelte and sexy 2,000 points.  This is not as easy as it sounds and this will be my first article on Paca.

First the ground rules. 

•  If you are expecting an article on how to fine tune an army to be optimized to walk over all the competition, you have come to the wrong blog.  I tend towards less then optimal lists, and even some wacky ones.  However, I make sure to cover a number of bases. 
•  Waagh Paca is held on the frozen tundra of Wisconsin in January.  For this Californian born and raised boy, just walking from the hotel to the venue will be an excruciating endurance and survival challenge.  Add in the Feats of Strength competition on Saturday night, which I will undoubtedly enter despite being twice as old as the other competitors, well, lets just say I see nothing but pulled hamstrings in my future.  But in the best tradition of Rocky IV, I shall head to the mountains in couple of weeks, run through the snow dragging a sled and chop wood to make myself mentally and physically ready for this grueling tournament.  (See Hinge’s rambling #1 below).

Even working on the Paca Beard!

• Keeping with the Rocky IV theme, I have challenged the Ivan Drago of the Mid-West, Mr. Mike “Nabrolean” Gerrold.  

  

  Why would I challenge this dude?  See Hinge's Ramblings #2

• The Mid-Westerners like their warhammer like they like their chees-Straight out of the box.  Ok, that is some sort of over generalization about mid-westerners and cheese, hell, for that matter, I love cheese, but if you cannot dabble in some generalizations on your own blog, where can you?  Anyways, if I survive my match with Nabrolean, I am sure to face all sorts of cheese of another kind (see what I did there?).

• Last February, I vowed to the Point Hammered boyz to play O&G at the next Waagh Paca.  I am a man of my word and Lizards and WoC will have to stay behind.  The tourney is W/L/D with an objective point available.  Lists are closed.  See Hinge’s Ramblings #3.  It is a heavy soft score tournament where battle, paint, and sports are all equal for Best Overall, though there is Best General if I want to just focus on Battle.  

So where to start.  My first thought was to take things out of my normal tourney list (West Coast Tournament army found here). The easiest thing to do was to dismount the general from his Wyvern and drop the Arock.  However, I felt this changed the entire character of the way I played this army.  Generally I would fling the chaff out to try and control the movement phase while I set up a combo charge from the Savages and Wyvern.  Hopefully the Arock could come into the flank (everyone forgets it can charge over a building) but I could also use its stubborn to hold up a flank if need be.  The light artillery line as well as Foot would force my opponent to come to me.  Any warmachine hunters that were not intercepted in mid field would be welcome to my artillery.  I was going for big points elsewhere.  I really tried to turn the match into one of movement.  However, the single most important piece to this strategy was the 18” IP of the general.  O&G leadership is crap, and with units all over the place, I needed that extra range to hold things together. 

So I have decided scrap that idea and build a force from the ground up.  The first decision was what style did I want to play?  O&G are the new dwarfs, albeit green, smellier and with a magic phase.  They can do a gunline with the best of them, so do I go down that route?  I find that style of play boring, not to mention Sports counts as a third of the score at Paca and an opponent may not find it sporting if I castle in the corner.  So while I will take artillery, it will not be the emphasis of the list.  Rather I want to try for a version of my “aggressive gunline” ways.  No castling in the corner and waiting for the opponent to come to me.  Rather use my tried and true tactics but in a more compact way and meet my opponent in midfield. 

The Meat: 

I decided on two combat blocks.  The first is a 40 man sguig herd.  I love massed ST 5 attacks.  It stood me in good stead with my Woc and should work fine here.  The unit is ItP so I have the option to let it stray farther from the general.  It does lack fortitude and I really should find a way to beef up the number of goblins so it does not pop early.  However, it is a risk I am willing to take and this unit should dent anything before going down. 

I have a tougher choice with the second block and ties directly with my choice of general.  The first choice is a Savage Orc Big'uns (or SOBU) unit.  The problem here is I feel I need to fit the Lucky Shrunken Head into the army.  This then leads to a either taking a L4 or L2 shaman to carry it and who would be my general?  An L4 would be a bad idea as general given he is only leadership 8 and is an “eggs in one basket” risk if I make him my general.  My shaman has an uncanny tendency to jump down chaos rabbit holes, and this is not a risk I can afford at this points level.  Frankly, A leadership 8 general also screams at getting this unit frenzy baited.  

  

So I decided to go for a standard Big Un unit with XHW.  The unit does not hit nearly as hard as a SOBU nor is it as survivable, but I think it will be more consistent.  Add in the fact that I can now take a Magic Banner and I think we have a winner.  So 30 of these not so bad guys and a Banner determined by my character selections.  Standard of Discipline for a boost in Leadership or the Razor Banner for more anti–armor goodness.  The biggest problem with this idea is I have no standard orcs painted!  Time to get busy. 

In midst painting.  I actually had to go out and buy more orcs!

The Chaff:

I am a firm believer in chaff heavy armies.  I actually pretty much kept the same chaff load out, 2 trolls, 2 wolf rider units, 2 wolf chariots.  Pump Wagons in many ways are better.  They can be geared to shred MC and can be kept behind the lines to protect the artillery.  However, I plan on moving forward and the double chariot charge can act as a great area denial/anti chaff units. 

The Artillery:

Double Doom Diver and a Rock Lobba.  I have exchanged the two spear chukka's for a second Doom Diver.  Pretty standard, though far from tame.  The artillery is there to deal with big gribblies or 1+ armor units.  Given the popularity of WoC, I feel I may be facing this army more than once.  Throw in Empire, HE cav buses, and the occasional (and underrated) Brett force and Double DD is golden.  There should be plenty of other targets available as well.  The challenge for me is to determine when to launch my own attack.  Too early and the artillery will not have had a chance to do its job.  Too late, and I may not pick up the points I am looking for. 

The Rest:

The rest of the non-character boyz includes a unit of Night Goblins + 2 Fanatics.  This will be a secondary bunker for the BSB and casters.  It also brings another ranked fortitude unit which is important in a couple scenarios.  I had to drop the nets, so this unit will most likely be behind the lines and not meant to engage. 

The Mangler is to just F with people.  If it actually does anything I will be shocked. 

The Bosses:

Let’s start with the two choices that are almost mandatory.  First my favorite:

Goblin Big Boss, Giant Wolf, LA, Shrieking Blade, Enchanted Shield, and Dragon Bane Gem-This guy is awesome.  He is a cheap piece of chaff in his own right.  He does not suffer from animosity like the wolf riders.  He can hide in units if need be.  He can lock down most units with the Banner of Eternal Flame.  Best of all, he is a K’dai hunter with two under his belt already.  A K’dai can destroy my entire army single handily.  I better be able to stop one. 

Then a spell caster.

Orc Shaman, L4, Scroll.  Yes, I make no bones about it, I want Foot and Hand.  Well mostly Foot.  I thought about two level 2’s instead (with an extra Arcane slot), so I can 6 dice foot without really carrying that my Shaman’s head explodes.  However I decided to go for a bump in Magic defense instead.  This will be my only caster.  But Hinge, how about the Lore of the Little Waagh?  Well see Hinge’s Ramblings #4.

Now the general and BSB. 

I think the decision on one impacts the other.  I really need a Black Orc in the list to knock some heads together, either the Boyz or whatever unit the Shaman is in so he can keep casting, so making one of these the BO allows me to do something else with the other. 

These were the options I came up with.

Wyvern Lord.  Advantages are the 18” IP bubble and it is a great center piece model, which given the scoring matrix, is of considerable importance.  From what I have heard, the opening of deer hunting season in Wisconsin rivals any national holiday, leading me to believe the Mid Westerner’s are all card carrying NRA members who believe in their constitutional right to bring as many cannons as they can paint up.  

At least that's what this guy tells me.
 See Hinge's Ramblings #5

So far I have nothing in my list that is a cannon worthy target that costs more than 85 points.  Throw in the fact my artillery can fire indirectly, I may be able to give opposing cannons no worthwhile targets at all.  So the Wyvern is out.

Hero level Black Orc.  Combine him with a Std. of Disc and I have my Leadership 9.  He has the additional advantage of being cheap, giving me another 100 points to spend elsewhere.  However, at 2 wounds, I would have to keep him bunkered.  This is actually the best choice at this point level.  However, it is so damn un-orcy.   I want my Warboss to get in the middle of the fighting damn it!  Plus point denial was never my thing.

Black Orc Lord.  He is expensive.  He is not that fighty for a fighty lord.  He is not that survivable (I should be mounting him on boar but see wyvern lord).  Perfect!  Let’s arm him with a Dragon Helm, ToP, and CoC.  He will be in the front line leading his drinking buddies!  The CoC makes that unit tough to shift, especially if I go with Std of Disc on those Boyz.  Of course the Razor Banner with its AP goodness is calling to me as well.  Hmmmm.  Anyways, the least optimal choice but there you have it.  He is my alter ego on the table and I did not brave these harsh artic conditions to cower behind the lines!

I shall come back with my shield or on it!
Waaagh!

This leaves the BSB.  Let’s go cheap here and take a NG BSB.  While tempted to give the Banner of eternal flame for potential anti regen ability (trolls, chimeras, Nurgle daemons) I decided to go with the Obsidian Lodestone for some MR3 goodness.  Death Magic is a big problem.  Sniping my characters will degrade the army quickly but I have to also beware of Purple Sun, which will take it off.  So max MR to give me an option to eat a snipe spell and save Dispel Dice for P Sun.  Also, my Foot has a shocking tendency to stomp on my own troops and this provides some excellent protection.  I suspect he will spend some time hanging out with the boyz before bailing out and joining his fellows at the back of the bus. 

So there you have it.  I have anti-flaming character, as much protection against the death magic meta as I can muster, anti-armor, chaff, massed ST5 and stubborn as long as I can keep the lord alive.  I am worried about lack of flaming attacks and only one magic weapon, ethereal units may be a serious problem. I would also like to see a little more fortitude, but 2,000 points goes quickly.  

Now time to test the list a couple of times and see if it actually works.  The general framework is here but I think there are some things I want to experiment with.  I will publish the final list near the end of the month.  

Hinge

Ramblings #1

So why fly (plus drive several hours) out all that way and deal with the cold just to play a tournament you may ask?  Well I had a total blast last year.  The event is in an Ale House, the beer is super cheap (especially when you are used to California prices), and the Mid Westerners have to be the friendliest bunch of guys and fellow hobbyist I have come across.  Plus I get to share a hot tub and cigs with the Skull Bros and tell them the biggest bull shit stories I can make up. 

Ramblings #2

Why indeed?  The strategy of challenging a top ranked player right off the bat may be counter intuitive to actually trying to win the tournament and you are right, but I have my reasons.  First, I must have provided mortal insult to the TO’s (Roge and Bear) in a past life.  Did I take their women?  Foreclose on their homes? Upper deck their hotel room?  Who knows but last year my strength of schedule was a full five points higher than the second hardest (I don't know Dale Bartz but he must have also committed some grave offense as well) and ten points higher than the third hardest.  Roge and Bear are clearly going to send me through the grinder so I will make their job easy and challenge last year’s Paca Champion.  Throw in the fact that Gerrold will likely be sympathetic to the hang over I am sure to be sporting Saturday morning, I enjoy his views on Warhammer when listening to Skull Bros, will drink a beer with me at 9 am, and I am likely to learn something from the inevitable ass kicking I will be receiving and I am looking forward to the match.

Ramblings #3

I am not a big fan of closed lists.  I have run into far too much unethical behavior in closed list tournaments over the years to ever change my position on this.  And really?  As an experienced tournament player, I can tell you what is in your list anyways, you are not going to surprise me.  

Ramblings #4

I actually love the lore of the Little Waagh.  There are no earth shattering spells, but cheap casting costs+Magic Mushrooms+I steal your power dice=WIN.  

Rambling #5

Having played many tournaments in Texas, I can tell you for a fact that the Texans own more guns then any other region.  This is not even a gross over-generalization!

What I imagine Texans would look like if they attended Waagh Paca!

A Return to Chaos

So I played WoC the last year of 7^th and the first year of 8^th and had a ton of success.  I moved on and played a Carno led Lizardman army and Orcs and Goblins the last couple of years and am currently experimenting with HE.  With the US Masters coming up in a couple of months, I decided to dust off the WoC and play some serious games to see the viability of taking the army to the event. 

Holyyyyy Crap.  You ever wear ankle weights for a week and then take them off?  You feel lighter and stronger immediately.  That is the sensation I feel while playing WoC.  Hell, I am playing a far from optimized list and it still feels that way.  Frankly if you make a mistake, your troops have a decent chance of fighting their way out of it.  Oh, and not having to worry about your army being taken off by a single Purple Sun is awesome!

I am not sure how long my return to Chaos will last (I still may take Lizards to the Masters), but I am going to enjoy the time!

Hinge

The Hobby Wobbles

Definition:  When a hobbyist has the inability to focus on a single project, but rather jumps from one to another and not competing any. 

Yeah, I have them bad.  I have three projects/tournaments at the start of next year and am playing three different armies.

Waagh Paca-

This is an awesome tournament in the frigid wastes of Wisconsin.  I plan on playing my O&G.  In fact, I vowed to do so, so no going back.  However, army lists are 2000 rather than the normal 2,500 and I am having a tough time slimming down my normal O&G list.  One change though is to take standard Big ‘uns rather than Savage Orc Big ‘uns.  I know I am giving up a good deal of hitting power and survivability.  However, frenzy is a big liability and I made the strategic blunder of challenging one of the mid-wests top players for the first round.  I suspect he would make me pay for bringing frenzy troops.  There are a couple of other advantages to taking the Standard Big’uns.  First I do not have to pay the Lucky Shrunken Head tax, allowing me to spend points on other items as well as another arcane slot.  It also allows me to take a magic banner as well.  This may be very important as fitting both a L4 and a Warboss into a 2000 point list is unlikely.  I would not want to depend on a leadership 8 for a five game tournament.  The problem is I have no regular orcs painted, so will need to model and paint 30 of them.  Time to get cracking!  As I settle in on the final list for this event, I will post it.

US Masters-

I have been invited to the US Masters. The US Masters uses the Swedish comp system and whatever army I bring will require a redesign of my normal tournament list.  I am lending my O&G to one of my club mates, so that option is out.  My first thought is Lizardmen.  I have the majority of models and they are well painted.  However the list I am contemplating needs 36 Suarus and I have only 20 as well as a couple of scar vet heroes.  More painting.  I could rush my HE but I really do not want my first tournament with this army to be the US Masters J  WoC is another option but the army is a little long in the tooth and can use some tender loving care.  Not to mention I may need to paint a Demon prince or Skull Crushers!

Lone Wolf-

My plan is that Lonewolf will be the first tournament I play my High Elves.  This is the project that has most of my interest right now and I am excited to get them out on the table.  I have just finished assembling the army and painting a couple of test models.  Alas I will have to set it aside until I wrap up the two previous projects.  I think this is life as a hobbyist.  The project you are most excited about is the one on the back burner.

Well back to painting!

FAN-aTICS

I am a frequent poster on COTEC and in discussions I often bring up how I feel O&G is a hard counter to WoC.   Invariably fanatics come up.  Now these are a danger to WoCs high value/low model count army.  The pat counter seems to be “I will use my van guarding warhound unit to pull the fanatics”.  I have to smile every time I see this. 

In my local group, there is a constant back and forth in fanatic and anti-fanatic tactics.  I thought I would share some of the tactics and counters to fanatic pullers in one article.  Since I will be posting this both on COTEC as well as my blog, it will have a WoC v. O&G theme but the following tactics should apply for any match up.

Setting the Stage

My typical O&G force has 3 individual chariots, 2 wolf units, and 2 solo trolls.  This is 7 units compromising 360 points that I can potentially drop before I even have to think about dropping a unit with fanatics.  It takes a very chaff heavy army to match this.  If an army can, they likely will pull the fanatics no matter what I do by sheer dint of cheap units.  Most O&G armies I have seen have 4-7 units of chaff, so my build is not out of line.

This leads me to my first problem with the van guarding hounds theory.  In countless tournament games, I have never seen a WoC player not drop all his hound units first.  This gives me an opportunity to deploy my fanatic units away from them.  A WoC player may recognize this but reserving a hound unit until later in deployment may lead to other problems.  Will there be room in the deployment zone to place the hound where needed?  If I have forced you to drop something more valuable earlier then you usually do, have I already not gained an advantage?  As I will show you, I can easily keep the hounds from getting to the fanatics even if I want to drop the unit opposite the hounds.  With that said, I think you should give up a small advantage and hold those hounds, or better fast cav until later in deployment.

Fanatic Tactics

The ideal tactics involve setting up the release of fanatics so that an opposing unit is forced to run over them.  The best is releasing in response to a charge.  With the ability of O&G to take a very solid artillery line, an enemy that sits back and avoids engagement could be in serious trouble.

Screaming across the front

This involves throwing the fanatics out of the unit across the face of your own unit, once again in response to a charge.  This ensures that a successful charge is eating 2d6 per fanatic.    It works best with either a wide unit or throwing across the face of an adjacent unit. 

As I understand it, the guy who won the SCGT in England had a 100 man poison shooting NG unit.  I imagine he used this tactic, as illustrated.  Here a Skull Crusher unit declares a charge, makes the roll, and stops 8” away.  The Goblin player can throw fanatics directly at the SC but some will hit and pass through for only 1d6, or you can throw across the front and guarantee they have to run across all three. 

Here is how I would use it.  Same situation but the SC are charging my Savages.  I may need to clip my unit to make it work but that is ok. 

Counters/anti counter-

The weakness of this tactic is that the fanatic units are on the front line.  This makes them very susceptible to early pulling by chaff.  Yes, that includes those pesky van guarding war hounds.  However, I am more likely to deploy like this. 

I have an advantage in a solid artillery line, so it behooves me to delay engagement, hence it is my chaff/anti chaff on the front line while the main units are farther back.  I have placed my Fanatic unit 7.5 inches back from the deployment line.  If you choose to vanguard your hounds up, you are depending on first turn (which you likely have the +1) but must stop 1 inch away from my units and unable to release the units.  Since you van guarded, you cannot charge my units and get closer.  I can always counter charge or perhaps get first turn and run the hounds off.  I have range advantage with the chariot, so you should never be able to close.  The troll is not worried about hounds and can interpose itself until it has something more important to do.  Finally, the best target of those crappy short bows on the chariot is the hounds.  A patient game will play into my hands.  The deployment also leads into the next tactic. 

The sling shot

By setting up behind my SO or trolls, I have an opportunity to throw the fanatics through the unit at a charging unit.  SO have a 5+ ward while the trolls have 4+ regen to help offset the wounds they take.  The charging unit will take the 2d6 hits on any roll of 7 or less (1d6 on a 8+) and then face an angry hammer unit.  The best set up is to make sure the 8” trigger point is an inch and half in front of your unit.  So the fanatic has a spot to stop, to close it will just carry through the charger. 

Counter/anti counter. 

The best counter to this is to move a chaff unit up to trigger the fanatics and force the O&G player to throw them out in awkward places.  Of course this also means you have survived the anti-chaff measures illustrated above.  Another option in the face of heavy chaff is to simply have them 8 inches back from the front line.  It is not ideal but you guarantee hitting the enemy unit (as well as yours) if they charge.  Of course they could just charge one of those cheap units in.    A final option is to have the fanatic unit even further back and move up on a subsequent turn to throw the fanatics through the ongoing combat.

Much of this tactic is dependent on the makeup of the opposing army.  An army like WoC with lots of high value/hard hitting models, it is worth throwing fanatics through your own units.  Against something like Skaven, not so much. 

Other Observations

Terrain. 

Terrain is death for fanatics.  As you deploy, look for approaches that take you through terrain.  It is likely the O&G player will deploy his fanatics away from these pieces and may give you an indication how he will deploy.  It is worth the occasional Dangerous Terrain test!

Flyers.

Flyers are the hardest thing to counter.  A good O&G player will try and set up zones where you cannot land but the ability hop over terrain from hiding and approach from odd angles makes it tough.  Flyers of all types are my first targets for all artillery.  Of course, flyers are also the best units at getting to warmachines, which means fanatic pulling may not be the best use for them.

2 for 1.

Look for O&G players who put their fanatic units to close together.  You may be able to move a single wide and mobile unit (skinks come to mind) up such it pulls the fanatics of two units at the same time. 

The late wheel

Every charger gets a free wheel.  A single model unit that can delay its wheel until after fanatics are released may be able to navigate and miss some/all of them.  Not a great tactic but something to keep in mind. 

Final Thoughts

I like fanatics because it causes my opponent to expend resources and effort in dealing with them.  Often these resources would be better spent dealing with my chaff or hunting my artillery.  However, if they are left alone, fanatics will often tip the balance of a critical combat.  2 tend to be just fine for me though I will sometimes play a list with 4. 

I would love to hear other tactics or counters if people have them. 

Hinge 

The High Elfs

So with the pending release of Dark Elves, I have kicked the painting on the High Elves in gear.  Here is the army list I have been toying with.

Loremaster, Book of Hoeth, ToP

Noble, BSB, Reaver Bow, PoT of Strength, Dragon Armor, shield, Halberd 

15 Archers, Banner, Mus

10 Archers, Banner, Mus

6 SilverHelms, Mus, Std, shields

5 Reavers, Mus

5 Reavers, Mus

15 Phoenix Guard, Mus, Std, Razor Std.

16 White Lions, Std, BotWD

6 Dragon Princes, Std, Mus, Banner of Eternal Flame

Tiranoc Chariot

5 Sisters

Flamespyre Phoenix

2x Eagle Claws

2x1 Eagles

A lot of drops.  I think the big change for me is two very expensive banners.  The first is the hated BotWD.  I thought long and hard about including this.  It is on a 16 man unit, which makes it very, very fragile but pricey.  This goes against my basic MSU philosophy in that all units are expendable.  Losing this one hurts and I had better be prepared to win it back.  Also, the temptation to stick characters in the unit is going to be great, making it even a bigger target.  Add that in this list I generally do not want my characters in combat (unlike my last three armies), I am going to have to be very careful with how I use this unit.  However, against certain match ups I think it will show well.  I also have some good ideas from my old WoC list that may come into play.

The other is the PG unit with Razor Banner.  This unit is proving to be more durable then I had originally thought.  -2 to the armor save makes it harder hitting then you would think, especially since it hits a lot.  Throw in 2 hexes and a buff spell and it is dicey engaging this unit. 

Flamespyre Phoenix.  I know that conventional wisdom says to take Frosty.  It is too damn good.  I have my reasons for going this route.  First, every High Elf list now has frosty, time to differentiate.  Second, Monsters are moving to the fore as far as Meta, which means you can expect to see many cannons.  I am trying to minimize cannon targets so you have wasted the points.  The fact that you can shoot me down and I can come back to life later means those cannon shots are wasted.  Or you can shoot at 70 point models.  Third, like all MSU, I will struggle against steadfast.  Wake of Fire should make those units pay.  Finally, the paint scheme on the sisters came out so well, with the flaming bows v. the cloaks, this will be an army wide color scheme.  With most of the primary color being a super light blue, having the center piece model contrast should be awesome.  Oh and I get to sculpt flames on the base!

I think this army can play several different way depending on match up.  The critical element I feel is that I can get the edge on the Chaff war then grab the initiative. 

Hinge

PS  I will get a picture up of progress when I get a chance

Status/Futureof Waagh Hinge and the Crossroads

So I have been trying to think of the best way to approach this post.  I think the best way is just to put it out there.

My family suffered a loss and I had to cancel my trip to New York and the Crossroads.  During the time that I have sought escape in the hobby I enjoy, I am disappointed that I did not get a chance to tip a beer and roll dice with some of the East Coast crowd I met earlier this year.  My goal is two North East tourneys in 2014!

So enough depressing stuff.


Waagh Hinge has one more challenge.  That is Waagh Paca in Wisconsin in January.  To top it off, I have challenged Mike Gerrold to a first round grudge match.  Mike is one of the best players in the country and his string of Best Overalls in the Mid West is mighty impressive.  I know this is not the best way to go about winning a tournament but I relish the challenge and figure this game is worth the trip all on its own!

So now it is on to dropping my list to 2000 points.  AS I circle around what this will be, I will throw a post up.

Hinge

Crossroads Warhammer Tournament list

So in a couple of weeks I will be traveling across the country to New York for the Crossroads Tournament.  I will be traveling solo, leaving my Leadership 2 club behind.  A couple of New York players are allowing me to hitch a ride to the venue (in upstate NY) and crash their hotel room.  I plan on repaying their kindness by drinking all their beer.

I will be playing my Orcs and Goblins once again.  However, I am making some significant changes to the Wyvern list I had been playing.  A little of this are the scenarios for the tournament.  Several of them call for a “scoring” unit, defined as a unit consisting of a full rank and with at least one command model.  With lots of points tied up in the Wyvern and Arock, this limits the number of these units.  However the prime motivator is a different scoring system then what I am used to here on the West Coast.  Here on the West Coast (and Texas), most of the tournaments play a W/L/D scoring system.  What I like about this is it allows me to take more aggressive lists with some sub-optimal units that I take just because I like them (fluff, model, because they are supposed to be crappy, whatever).  After all, whether I lose by 100 or 2500, it is all the same.  It is the same for wins, which has led to a style of play that gives up lots of points, making it a much more enjoyable game on both side’s part and perhaps leading to some better sportsmanship scores.  Even if I pull that one match up that I get tabled in, I can shoot to win the other 4, focus on getting objective points, and combine with generally high soft scores, finish in the top 10. 

Crossroads is using a 0-16 scoring system with 4 objective points available.  Under this system, I cannot afford a “bad” loss and have opted for a more conservative list.  It still has plenty of chaff and units, allowing me to compete in the movement phase.  I can play an aggressive game if I wish, or I can bunker down and attempt to minimize a bad match up.

Crossroads list

Black Orcs Warboss, General, shield, Dragon Helm, ToP, Crown of Command

This is the first list I have ever taken to a tourney with a CoC.  The General will go into the Savage orc unit.  Since this unit is smaller than you would normally find, I felt it important to make sure they stick around as long as possible.  Doubly so since the unit will contain both the General and L4.

Savage Orc Shaman, L4, Lucky Shrunken Head, Obsidian Amulet, Warrior Bane, PoT of Speed.

Fairly standard, however I have given up the Fencers blade in favor of MR 2.  This does a couple of things for me.  First, unlike most orc players, Foot tends to stomp on me rather than continuing on.  This will protect my most important unit from my own spell.  Second, Death Magic.  The entire lore hoses me.  This will allow me to ignore snipe spells in favor of stopping Purple Sun, Doom, or Soulblight.  Warrior Bane is there to add a magic weapon for the occasional ethereal units. 

Goblin BSB-Naked

His sole purpose is to run around behind the lines and wave a flag.  I should have given him the damn Banner of Flame.  I am disappointed that I missed this opportunity to stick some flaming into the army. 

Night Goblin Shaman, L2, Scroll

Scroll caddy and magic support.  People forget about the Gobbo lore attribute!  I thought hard about putting the Ruby Ring on him and wish I had.  Oh well.

Goblin Big Boss, Wolf, LA, Enchanted Shield, DB Gem, Shrieking Blade

Great for hunting Kdai’s, Hewxwraiths, ethereal, small units with Flaming Banner not to mention a nice cheap redirector. 

30 Savage Orc Big ‘uns, FC, XHW

The ubiquitous SO unit in every O&G list, if a bit smaller.  I must get these guys engaged.  I have lost every game when they have not fought. 

20 Night Goblins, Std, Mus, 2x Fanatics, Nets

20 Night Goblins, Std, Mus, Short Bows

5 Wolf Riders, Spears, Shield, Mus

I went back and forth on these three units.  My core compromises all my “scoring” units.  I generally run 2 fast cav units and 1 NG unit and one scenario this may be the more beneficial option.  However, there is also a Blood and Glory Scenario as well another scenario where model count of the scoring units is important.  The other option was to have the second NG unit with 2 x fanatics, however I felt the Nets were more important.  Superior players are just too good at drawing out fanatics and time and again I have found the nets to be key to winning a fight.

30 Squigs, 11 Herders

I went back and forth on whether to take this unit of Black Orcs.  The Black Orcs would give me a Flaming Banner as well as another scoring unit.  However, I have a nice unit filler and this unit will act as a center piece unit.  I expect it to die gloriously while putting a big dent in my opponents forces.

2 x 1 Trolls

Redirectors. 

3 x 1 Wolf Chariots

Anti chaff and combat enhancers

. 

2 x 1 Spear Chukkas

2 x 1 Doom Divers

Rock Lobba

This is the max warmachines allowed under the comp packet (4 with 2 for 1’s counting as a single choice)

2 x 1 Mangler

Enough said

Pump Wagon, Spikey Roller, Out-rigga, Giant Exploding Spores. 

This is a new addition for me.  It will be interesting how this unit works out.  It can be potentially devastating.

I only got 4 games in before I had to submit the list.  It could stand a little more play testing (where I would have picked up the option to add a magic banner to the BSB).  I lost to an optimized DoC army and managed to win a small local con tourney.  Fortunately the small tourney used a 20 nil scoring system and I was able to really get a feel of playing under that style.  Ended up with a small loss to Beasts and large wins against High Elfs and Ogres.  

Waagh Hinge pushes inland

Sorry for the delay.  I had a trek to the mountains, braving smoke and fire to dominate all in Beer Pong as well as a con tournament that distracted my attention.  On to the conclusion of Game 1 of the Lustria Campaign.

Lizard Turn 1-

The cold one bus promptly declares a charge against the Savage Orcs.  Without steadfast, they break and are run down along with my BSB and L4.  In one go, I have thrown away my numerical advantage!.  The second skink unit moves onto the board.  The Terradons drop rocks on the tail end wolf riders, killing 2, but the gobo hero keeps them in place.

 During the magic phase, Flock puts 2 wounds on the Mangler.   

The Salamander roasts 10 night goblins, who shakily stand their ground.  However, the lizards seemed to have forgotten to bring their poison and all other shots are ineffective. 

Orcs Turn 1-

The wolves counter charge the terradons, bravely passing through the hurled javelins.  The Mangler goes bounding towards the Basilidon with murderous intent while Warboss Hinge eyes the giant steg on the hill.  He has heard they are good eating!  The gobo shaman, seeing a chance to impress Hinge, orders his body guard to turn towards the sallie and release the fanatics.  One plows throw the creature but only kills 1 of the handlers.  In the front of the column, wolves and chariots prepare to protect the warmachines from skinks while Arock whips around the house.  Is it to hide from the CO bus or perhaps he saw some tasty morsels out that way. 

The warmachines un limber.  The bolt thrower scores a hit on the Basilidon but fails to wound.  Both doom divers prove shockingly ineffective, scoring a single wound on the armored creature.  The Rock Lobba still is unloading its ammo and seems it will be out of action for another turn. 

In a shocking display of martial skill the Wolf riders slay a Terradon with with the loss of one of their own, but fail to run the terradons down down. 

Lizardmen Turn 2

The Steg goes rumbling down the hill and smashes the troll to pulp.  The cold one bus turns to start a rampage down the line.  A skink unit enters a house to toss javelins at the giant spider while the priest continues to cower behind it.  It was placed such that any one of my units that could charge were in the models front arc, which was sheltered by the house.  The terradons fail to rally. 

The priest is able to toss an amber spear at a chariot but only does 2 wounds. 

The sallie roasts another 5 goblins while skinks finish off the mangler. 

Orc Turn 2 

Warboss Hinge charges the ancient steg and slays it in a single round WAAAAAGH!!  The Gobbo warboss, angling to look good in front of his boss charges into a swamp and kills the Sallie, though taking a wound from the treacherous footing.  Finally, the Arock charges the building and kills 8 skinks, the survivors bravely holding his ground.  Other units maneuver, including two of the warmachines.  The troll fails an important march test.  And follws after his leader as best he can (I wanted to use him to divert the CO bus.  I knew I was going to be out of range of the general soon and felt it would give me another round of shooting.  Who knows, maybe he would survive and force a pursuit as well.  It was not to be. 

While two of its fellows are looking to get out of the way, one doom diver takes a shot at the skink unit, hoping to panic them off the board.  Unfortunately they are not easily scared off. 

Lizards Turn 3

The coldone bus charges a doom diver, overruns just short of the nigh goblins.  The terradones, while every other unit is looking to get out of the orcs arcs. 

Orc turn 3

The troll, now out of range of his master, fails a stupidity check.   The chariot charges the Terradons and wipes them out.  I thought about trying to overrun into the CO Bus but decided not to.  The Arock comes back from behind the house and along with the chariot and wolf riders, unlimber their shortbows.  In a rain of arrows, the skink priest takes three wounds, but makes 2 of his armor saves!  Damn scaly skin.  The bolt thrower kills two of the cold ones, while the doom diver takes out several more.  The NG Shaman decides it might be safer to leave his body guard. 

Lizard turn 4

The coldones charge the night goblins, then the shaman, both who flee.  Skinks move closer to targets for their javelins but fail to do any wounds. 

Orc Turn 4

With nowhere to hide the Basilidon must take a charge from Warboss hinge and is chased off the table.  The night goblins continue to flee while the Arock finally hunts down the skink priest.  The doom diver once again dismounts a couple of coldones. 

Lizard turn 5

The coldones brush the lone wolf rider aside and turns are getting quick.

Orc Turn 5

The gobo boss charges the skink priests unit.  The night goblins rally and prepare for another flee.  The Doom diver saves its best shot for last and brings the Cold one unit down to 1 model.  The Gobbo hero chases off the skink priest. 

Lizard turn 6

The coldone bus decides to go stupid!  The turn passes

Orc turn 6

The night goblins decide to go all heroic, fail an animosity and charge into the CO Bus.  The General rolls his eyes and declares the flank charge to support the NG.  The chariot tries to do the same but fails its charge. 

The night goblin summons up the great green and is able to get Sneaky stabin on the general.  The lizard BSB steps forward and challenges Warboss Hinge, in a fury, the Wyvern and Warboss smash the BSB who makes several re-rollable 6+  and 5+ to keep a single wound!  The night goblins surge forward and are able to drag down the last CO but are wiped out in return.  The warboss is forced to take leadership 8 check to stick and does so. 

We count it up and it is a very narrow victory to the Lizards, despite having only 2 models left on the board!  It was amazingly close at the end and could have easily gone my way.  The BSB failing one of those saves brings it to a draw.  Same with a single night goblin surviving.  Actually in the later, I win combat and the general would be forced to make a break test, who knows. 

My mistakes were mostly in deployment.  Knowing he could crush any single unit on the first turn, I should have had all my characters deployed outside of their units.  However, with the loss of my hardest unit and two important characters, the rest of my force was very fast and able to avoid combat and bleeding off many more points.  However, it just was not enough to make up for that first turn. 

I thoroughly enjoyed playing something different then the standard tournament style play.  It does not hurt that my opponent is a perennial Best Sports contender at any tournament he plays in!

I will need to fight my way off the beach once again, let’s hope it is a different scenario!  The Lizards get as their reward a free stratagem next game.  Tony and I will try and get the game in this month.  

Lustria Campaign- Intro and Deployment for Engagement 1

GW has put out a product in electronic booklet form only called Warhammer Battles.  I recently purchased the Lustria version of this and decided to venture away from my standard tournament oriented style of play.  A buddy of mine, Tony, quickly agreed we would give this mini campaign a try.  The campaign would be 3-5 games.  We departed from some of our traditional playing conventions and decided on closed lists and full special terrain rules.  However, the one model that had to remain the same was the general.

Warboss Hinge

Orc Warboss, Light Armor, Wyvern, Sword of Might, Charmed Shield, ToP, OTS

Lord Antonisssssssss

Oldblood, Shield, Cold One, Sword of Might, Crown of Command, ToP.

So the great WAAAAGH HINGE invades Lustria in search of the great artifact known as the “Never Empty Keg”.  Little does he know that a mighty host of lizards are gathering to stop him.

The Campaign uses a chart (different for each engagement) to determine the scenario to be used.  Each side determines a strategy based on those offered his side in that particular engagement.  You cross reference the two choices and find out what the scenario is and if there are any modifications.  

So Engagement One - "The Landing".  Being an Orc, I decided on a simple straight ahead approach and choose Invade while the wily Lizards choose Ambush.  We ended up with the Scenario Surprise Attack!

In this scenario, Tony could only take 66% of his force.  However he was given some advantages.  The first is he was able to choose 2 strategems and he choose extra points for his Coldone unit and the other was to destroy one of my magic items (he had to guess and I if it was in my list I had to eliminate it).  He choose dispel scroll.   However the major advantage was that my army would be strung out on a road, with no unit wider than 4 models, and he would have first turn.  Yikes! Check out my deployment.   

The armies:

Waaagh Hinge

Warboss Hinge

Orc Great Shaman, L4, Lunky Shrunken Head, Obsidain Trinket (Brain Busta, Hand, Ere We Go, Foot)

Black Orck BSB, Tal End, Shield, Dragonhelm

Gobbo Shaman, L2, Scroll (Sneaky Stabbin, Itchy)

Goblin, Wolf, LA, Enchated Shield, Shrieking Blade, DB Gem

30 SO Big uns, FC

20 Night Gobs, Mus, Std, Nets, 2x fanatics

5 wolf riders, spear, shield, mus

5 wolf riders, spear, sh

2x1 trolls

3x1 Wolf Chariots

Spear chukka

2x Doom Divers

Rock Lobba

Mangler

Arock

Ancient Host of Lord Antoniusssssssss

Lord Antoniusssss

Scar vet, BSB, CO, LA, GW, DB Helm, Dawnstone, Iron CUrse Icon

Skink Priest, scroll, (Flock)  -Off table in reserves\

Skink Priest L2, cube, (Wysans, Amber Spear)

10 Skink Skrimishers, Javelins -off board in reserves

10 skink skrimishers, javelins

10 Coldones, Musso

3 terradones

salmander

blastidon

ancient steg

Note that the scenario rules state that while Tony had to design a force at 2,500 that met all requirments, we had to remove 34% of the point total by dropping whole units.  He did not need to maintain min. core.

Will Warboss Hinge be able to fight its way out of the cunning trap or will it be pushed back into the sea.   Stay tuned.

Orcs and Goblin Army

I thought I would talk about my Orcs and Goblins list.  I got into the hobby at the time Storm of Chaos came out and immediately jumped onto Orcs and the Grimgor Ironhide army.   While WoC is my favorite army, Orcs and their destructive nature are a close second.  I thought I would share my thoughts about how I came up with the list, why I made certain choices, and what I try to make sure I have in a tournament army.

I have played it in three tournaments with this list, the BAO where I went 3-2, WCGT, where I went 3-0-2, and finally SAWS where it went 5-0.  This is typical trajectory for a new list, with the first tournament winning about half my games and rapidly improving from there.

The list.

Orc Warboss, Wyvern Sword of Might, ToP, Charmed Shield, Other Tricksters Shard

Savage Orc Great Shaman, L3, Fencers Blades, Lucky Shrunken Head, PoT of Swiftness

Black Orc BSB, Spell Shield, Tal of Endurance

Night Goblin Shaman, L2, Dispel Scroll

Goblin Big Boss, Giant Wolf, LA, Shield, Shrieking Blade, Dragon Helm

33 Savage Orc Big’uns, FC, XHW

20 Night Goblins, Std, Mus, Nets, 2xfanatics

5 Goblin Wolf Riders, Mus, spear, sh, bow

5 Goblin Wolf Riders, Mus, spear, sh, bow

Troll

Troll

Wolf Chariot

Wolf Chariot

Wolf Chariot

Spear Chukka

Spear Chukka

Doom Diver

Rock Lobba

Mangler Squig

Arachnarok Spider

1. Take models I like.  As competitive as I am, I like the hobby.  There are models I love.  The Chaos Sorcerer, Old Blood on a Carno, Witch Hunters, Orc Warboss on a Wyvern.  They can appeal to me for any number of reasons, I feel the model is bad ass, I love the fluff behind it, what ever.  So I try to incorporate them into the list.
2. Take lists that compete strongly in the movement phase.  This does not necessarily mean a bunch of fast units (though that is helpful) but rather lots of them.  I love the movement phase, I believe it emphasizes generalship and gives you options on how to approach a match up.
3. Chaff.  This goes hand in hand with number 2.  What I am looking for is a mix of chaff.  Fast and maneuverable has to be a given.  However I also like a mix of other traits.  Some that are just dirt cheap, some that can tackle other chaff, some that can act as missile troops, ability to act as mage assassins, some that are just plain durable, etc.  Hopefully each unit can fill at least two of these traits.
4. Solutions too many of the common challenges presented by opposing tournament armies.   Do I have flaming?  Can I deal with high Armor Saves? Can I cope with Death Magic? Hordes and tarpits? Warmachines? Etheral’s? Specific units like the pendant lord or K’Dai.  I try to cover as many of these bases as I can and certainly have thought hard about specific tactics to counter these units.
5. Units that can fill multiple rolls.  I love it when they can provide some flexibility.
6. Can I write a back story for the list?  Yeah, I still do that.  They are horrible but what the hell.

One thing that is low on the priority list is redundancy.  This is a powerful concept in tournament builds but I am willing to give some of this up.  My lists can be a bit unforgiving.  I make a mistake in the movement phase, a good player can jump on it or I don’t have the redundancy to make it through a run of bad luck. 

Let’s run through the list, talk about why I took them and how they have performed.

Wyvern-  I love the Orc on a Wyvern.  The model is bad ass and it screams ORC!!! to me.  I first started having success a number of years back when I put one in to that first army.  It is a total emotional choice and I don’t regret it.  As far as tournaments, it provides a great center piece model to the army for presentation.  Interestingly enough, it was not the combat power, which is rather mediocre, that helped the list, but the 18” Inspiring Presence bubble.  The army suffers from low leadership and has a large number of chaff units that get flung around.  Having that extra distance really helped me be more aggressive with the chaff, pushing it farther out. 

Lvl 3 Orc Great Shaman – Only being level 3 hurt, often times leaving me with a suboptimal set of spells.  I choose the Fencers Blades to make him a bit more survivable given he was meant to go in a unit that needed to go in harm’s way.  He has the added advantage of being able to turn into a combat monster fairly easily with fists of gork.  Yes, he has become a WS 10, ST 7, To 5, In 5, 6 Attack beast (with a 5+ ward) on occasion.  I even got ‘ere we go off once with him spun up! 

BSB-  Clearly his big roll is to knock the Savages back into place if they get unruly.  Losing both casting and control of my primary combat block for a turn just hurts.  The Spell Shield was my first attempt at dealing with both Death Snipes and my own foot smashing into the Savages, an extremely common occurrence.  I will drop it in favor of a goblin hero with an MR item.  Yeah he hangs out the side but if MR 1 worked well, MR 2 will work better. 

Night Gobbo Shaman-  Scroll caddy and magic redundancy for when my SO Shaman’s head explodes.  People often forget his lore attribute, so I like to throw one dice (plus mushroom) to get Sneaky off.  They usually let it go and if I can steal 1 of their Dispel dice, it throws them off a bit. 

Goblin Wolf Hero- One of my favorite builds.  He has 2 K’dais to his name and he is primarily there to deal with them.  However, at 71 points, he is also a great chaff unit.  Expendable if I need a diverter.  He gets ignored and can work his way to warmachines or get flank charges on chariots.  Heck, he even held up a unit of 5 Maneaters with the Flaming Banner for 6 rounds of combat, allowing my army to deal with the rest of his.  There is no end of uses with this model and I am seriously thinking of putting a second one in.

Savage Orcs- What can you say about this mad creatures!  They hit like a ton of bricks.  I have found I need to get them in combat, even combats that are not ideal.  When I hold them back or allow them to be diverted, I am usually in trouble. 

Night Goblins – This is a combat unit and works in partnership with the SO.  Ideally they come in on a subsequent round to lend their nets and ranks to the combat.  On the topic of fanatics, good generals are very, very good at pulling them.  I keep them in there because even the best generals have to deal with them.  Those units that don’t care if they get hit by a couple of fanatics I find the SO can deal with.  The unit also gives me another point of fortitude.

Goblin Wolf Riders – Cheap redirecting chaff.  I plan on dropping bows off of them as they rarely kill anything and there are times I will turn them around to face away from the enemy to avoid animosity charges.  I also often run them through forests early to see if I can lose one to a dangerous terrain test. 

Trolls-  Again, cheap redirectors.  They stay near the SO unit to help with redirecting and anti chaff.  They can also be used as a flank unit to bring a little extra combat rez.  2 are a necessary redundancy.

Wolf Chariots -  Anti chaff primarily.  They have a huge threat range, so I can use them in pairs to create a zone where smaller elite units or monsters may not want to go.  I also like to park one near the NG unit.  Any disposable unit that wants to move close in anticipation of pulling the fanatics the next turn can usually be chased off. 

Artillery -   This is a strength of O&G lists.  My artillery train is not maxed out, certainly Double Doom Divers would be much more useful.  However, it is enough to bring threats to the things I need them to and often forces the opponent to come to me.  I love putting the bolt throwers way out on flanks.  They are cheap so that if someone wants to spend the time hunting them down, I don’t mind.  If you don’t, they get a nice enfilade shot and who knows, they may hit something.  I also think that a larger artillery park would lead me to sit back and pummel opponents.  Boring. 

Mangler- Again, 2 would be better, but I find players view two of these as obnoxious.  One is enough that once again my opponent must expend resources to deal with it.  If you are seeing a theme, you are correct.  Individually, many of these units are not that impressive and can be dealt with.  However, any opponent has finite resources and can only deal with so many.  All the while I am chipping away at those resources.  Ignore the Mangler and fanatics in favor of sending the fast chaff to hunt warmachines, and you risk the random movers doing critical damage.  Use magic missiles to kill the mangler and the wolf chariots are chasing your chaff off and the Trolls are limiting you charge options.  So on and so on.

Arock -   I have to say I have been impressed with this model.  While overpriced, it is fast and has the unique ability to charge over buildings.  It also pumps out a good number of decent attacks.  I know I can find a better use for the points but it has been fun to play with.  While stubborn, the leadership value is substandard.  Another reason for the importance of the 18” IP bubble. 

So there it is. Now I am trying to decide to keep running the list or change it up.  

So I am heading off on vacation for two weeks but have a couple of blog posts in mind upon my return.  They include:

• ·         My SAWS Orcs and Gobbo lists.  Share my thoughts on its construction and how it played.
• ·         My current hobby project, a heavy MSU High Elf list.
• ·         The second half of my vacation will be in San Diego.  I plan on sneaking away from the family for a game or 2 with the Comp 1 crew.  Hopefully I can generate an interesting Bat Rep out of it. 
• ·         3 most interesting lists I saw at QCR.

So talk to you in a couple of weeks and keep rolling them snake eyes for break tests.  

I have had a chance to look over the data for the Quake City Rumble.  With 103 players and every army represented, there is plenty of interesting things to look for.  I thought I would look at the simple, how each army performed.

Warning, wall of numbers incoming!

The Quake uses a W/L/D system.  Points assigned are 16-12-8.  There were 4 bonus points available for each game which changed with the scenario.  5 rounds were played so the range was 40-100.

I would also comment that I feel that this is the softest field army composition wise I have ever seen at the Quake.  Rodge of Point Hammered was one of our comp judges and he even comments on one of his podcasts how he felt it was pretty soft.  There were few optimized lists in attendance.

So a look at average battle scores:

Army                  Average
Dark Elves               81
Ogres                       73.5
Skaven                       71.88
High Elves               70.55
WoC                       70.31
Tomb Kings               70.25
Chaos Dwarves       69.4
Empire                       68.12
Wood Elves               68
Vampire Counts       66.71
Beast Men               66
O&G                       65.67
Bretts                       63.8
Lizardmen                      60.88
Daemons                       60.67
Dwarfs                       59.5

Please note that the O&G is depressed since the ringer army was Orcs and Goblins and it took an 8 every round.

Dark Elves led the pack by a pretty wide margin followed by some of the usual suspects.  The Dark Elves in lists in general were in the “harder” end of the comp spectrum and clearly took advantage of it.  The big surprise is Tomb Kings (4 players), who did very well.  Lizardmen had a surprisingly poor showing, though there were two Carno lists.  Daemons did very poorly.  They seemed to pull High Elfs with some frequency, much to their dismay.

A look at the individual armies.  Mirror and ringer matches were pulled out.

Beastmen- 13-12 (.520).
Did well against Woodies and Ogres and poorly against O&G and TK.

Brettonians 7-9-4 (.450)
Poor showing for some pretty skilled Brett players.  2 of the 3 three Alamo winners were playing there Bretts.  However, 1 Brett player did earn second Best General.  WoC and Ogres seem to be there problem armies.

Chaos Dwarf 13-11-1 (.540)
5 armies this year.  On the whole, did very well against almost all matchups.  They struggled against WoC.  Additionally they played HE 8 times and ended with a narrow losing record against them.

Daemons 10-18 (.357)
DoC was cursed with playing High Elves 9 times, where they compiled a 1-8 record.  It was a tough draw and I am not sure why it kept occurring.  In general they struggled against most match ups accept Vamps and WoC.

Dark Elves 16-7-2 (.680)
The dominate army of the tourney scoring an excellent record against most armies.  Only Empire and Vamps seem to give them problems.

Empire 17-17-3 (.500)
An army that seemed to be able to hold its own in almost all matches.  It showed very well against Helfs while O&G seemed to have their number.

High Elfs 22-20-6 (.521)
High elves owned both Skaven and DoC, collecting over half their wins against these two armies.  They struggled against the high armor save armies such as WoC, Empire and Bretts.

Empire 18-17-3 (.513)
Empire tended to hold their own against most armies and really only did well against High Elfs.  Chaos Dwarfs an O&G were able to wrack the wins against Empire.

Lizardmen 16-16-3 (.500)
Lizards were able to take it to O&G and High Elfs.  Dark Elves, VC, TK did well against them, perhaps Death magic?

Ogres 18-13-3  (.574)
Ogres were able to give WoC a bad time along with High Elfs, Beastmen, Bretts, and TK.  However they struggled badly against Dark Elves, Empire and Skaven.

O&G 13-9-1 (.587)
O&G collected a winning record despite the low average battle score.  The ringer army was thrown out of the above record.  With the exception of Lizards and Beastmen, O&G rarely played other armies more than once or twice.  O&G really beat up on Beastmen but struggled against the Lizards.

Skaven  17-12-3 (.578)
Skaven generally performed well against all armies with the exception of 2, Dark Elves and High Elves, who accounted for 8 of their losses.   WoC in particular did unfavorably v. Skaven.

Tomb Kings  9-9-1 (.500)
The surprise of the tournament in my mind, especially given their reputation.  It seems if TK faced an army more than once, they collected a winning record (Ogres being the exception).

Vampire 12-15-6 (.453)
Another surprise as vampires underperformed what you would expect.  This is partially how soft many of the vamp armies were.  However they were one of the two armies to consistently beat the Dark Elves.  They also held their own against WoC.

WoC 27-25-9  (.516)
The most numerous army, they generally were able to scrape together winning records against most armies.  They were dominated by Skaven but did very well against High Elfs.  Oddly, they struggled against Daemons.

Wood Elves 6-8-1 (.433)
3 brave souls continue to play the woodies.  There is no real pattern other then Beastmen owned them badly.


So Dark Elves remain a dominate army,  High Elf and Daemon players are still on their learning curve, and are TK Monster Mash a viable tournament army.?

I am heading off on vacation but will try and put a Bat Rep together when I return.