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

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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.