Saturday, July 27, 2013

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.  

Friday, July 26, 2013

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.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Building Tactics Part 1

I am doing a little data crunching on QCR results but in the mean time I thought republish a buildings tactics article I did a while back. 

I find buildings to be one of the more interesting terrain features on our battlefields.  Its set of rules can influence a game and make a given match up feel much more unique. I find it good practice to discuss all terrain features with your opponent prior to a game.  For example, how many floors a building has, what is the foot print if mounted on a base, etc.

Impassable.  An important feature of a building is that it is treated as impassable terrain unless you enter it to garrison.  This leads to several interesting tactics.  Clearly, many of these are situational.  I find that by simply placing a building in the middle, you increase the frequency of opportunities that may develop. 

Flee through building:  The first is fleeing through the building.   Your troops can now flee through a building (after taking dangerous terrain tests) while a charger must stop an inch short.  By setting up flee angles so that you go through the building, you only have to roll high enough to reach the building, not out run the charger, increasing the probability that the fleer gets away. 

Anchor/Roadblock:  I look to the impassable nature of buildings as a way to split up my opponent’s battle line.  A standard strategy for me is to push one flank while refusing the other.  With a building, I can use it as a pivot point.  I use it to protect the flank of units you are pushing forward.  It will get in the way of opponents attempts to shift forces over, which may have to go around the building.  I often deploy highly maneuverable units opposite the building.  Fast Cav, chariots, monsters, warshrines, etc.  While this seems counterintuitive since they cannot enter a building, there lack of a need to wheel allows them to maneuver around the building quickly. 

Making a unit immune to being charged:  I have seen this frequently in tournament play.  You move a model so that it is an inch away from the house.  Any enemy unit that it is in its front arc will be unable to charge it since it cannot make contact with the front arc, even though it could easily contact a flank. 

Clipping:  There are a number that have a high damage output on a narrow frontage, such as Chariots, monsters, warshrine, and single characters.  They will benefit from being in contact with as few models as possible, allowing them to bring their full damage output in play while receiving few attacks back. 

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In the above example, without the building, the Chariot would be forced to move forward until its wheel would be such that it contacts the maximum number of models.  With the building in the way, the chariot must wheel earlier, bringing fewer models in contact.  Since the Chariot only needs to touch one model to inflict its total damage potential, this is desirable. 

Forcing an opponent to conform to you:  An opponent may place a chaff unit in front of one of your units at an inconvenient angle.   A building may keep you from closing the door, meaning that this chaff unit now conforms to you. 

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Blue is in a spot of trouble.  He has a unit locked up with Chaos Knights with a MoK Warrior unit ready to flank charge.  He also has an infantry unit almost straight ahead who likely does not want to go toe to toe with the Warriors.  He decides to use a fast cav unit to redirect the frenzied Warriors, exposing their flank to a charge.  Unfortunately he has made a mis-calculation.  When the blood thirsty Warriors charge, they cannot conform to the cav due to hitting the building.  They force the cav to conform to them, likely expending themselves for no gain and allowing the Warriors to over run into the Infantry. 

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Most of these tactics can be used with any impassable terrain piece.  Honestly I rarely attempt to set any of these up but rather put my units in a position to take advantage of them if they present themselves. 
A review of moving in and out of buildings.  You may not enter a building while executing a march maneuver.  However, other maneuvers are allowed.  When exiting a building, you must have at least one model from the rear rank 1” away from the building (faq changed from in contact) but the unit may be in whatever formation you desire, as long as no model moved more than twice its movement. 

How far was that Normal Move?  The building rules are clear that you may not make a March move to enter a building.  This seems to limit the distance that you may move into a building to your normal movement allowance.  However, by using the swift reform move, you can actually do better.  Simply swift reform into a conga line, with the front aimed at the building, then move in.  Just remember, according to pg XX of the brb, the farthest a model may move when it executes a maneuver is twice its base movement.  This maneuver can be met with a frown from your opponent, as many players view it as rather cheesy.  I have never used the maneuver for this exact reason and only bring it up so you are aware of it.

Hide and Seek:  I use this to keep a unit alive that is being pressed by a superior unit and I do not want to give up the points, while at the same maintain my unit as a credible threat if need be.  This tactic involves jumping in and out of a house with the target unit.  At times, keeping the house in between the units, hunkering down, and/or slipping out to threaten the rear if the enemy unit turns away.  My old WoC list had 20 man Marauder units and I was often asked how I used them.   This is one example
      
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We see in the first turn and a half that I move up but stay close to the house.  I would stay within the ability to move backwards into the house.  Otherwise you will need to fast reform to get into it.  I know this is a simplistic example and horde formations tend to be in the center, but it is not unusual to find opponents placing units of uber death on a flank in the hopes of turning yours. 

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The next turn is the first decision point for the blue player.  He can attempt a long charge the marauders in the house, move towards the house while starting an angle towards the center, or turn towards my main battle line.  Charging the marauders has a chance of failing.  A successful charge concedes his horde advantage, subjects him to 20 ST5 attacks at I4, has my unit automatically steadfast, likely will get away if I break (assuming I do not run off the board), and puts him in the house if he wins (I will discuss this in a later chapter), stuck in front of if I hold.  A turn towards my flank will see me pop out of the building to threaten the flank/rear of the unit.  If I have done my job, there should be a chaff unit close by to make sure he cannot crash into the flank of another on his turn.  In this case my opponent has chosen a bit of a middle ground, advancing, while wheeling a bit but making sure not to expose a flank if I pop out.  I simply pop out the back to threaten if he continues to move towards the middle.  Blue could go into the building to keep pushing me back but that is ok.  I have bought three turns, he has to come out of the building before he charges (and I will likely go right back in) and on it goes.  

Well back to the data crunching.  I hope to have some conclusions about how armies did against each other.  
Hinge

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Introduction

Who the hell is Hinge?

My name is Michael Hengl, I live in Oakland, California, and I play with little toy soldiers.  Specifically Warhammer Fantasy.    A look at the calendar tells me I am 45 years old.  Yeah, that puts me in the “damn that dude is old!” category of the hobby.  The fact is I have only been playing been playing since 2004.  I guess I was a late bloomer when it comes to the hobby!


Old Man of the Sea Hinge
Waagh Paca Jan. 2013.  
The beard and 18 layers of clothes are gone now.  

Actually I fell into the hobby when I discovered a hobby shop called EndGame on a walk to the farmers market with my wife and 3 year old son.  I did play Dungeons and Dragons as a teenager but had dropped it during college.  I dedicated most of my time to a career and my other passion, basketball.  I played in leagues. I played on the black tops. I played in rented gyms. I played where ever I could find a game and was playing 4 days a week.   I loved the competition and the social aspect of the sport.  A son and a shattered leg pretty much ended my basketball playing days.   So I walked into Endgame in search of something to occupy my free time.  Storm of Chaos was in full swing and I bought a couple models and paints.  Soon after, I fell in with a club called Leadership 2, who had just moved its base to Endgame.  I found a home.  They introduced me to tournament Warhammer and it was exactly what I was looking for, competition with a great social element.  In the last year, I also became a member of the Hangover Heroes of Texas.  Now I have a great group of friends in two different states that share my enjoyment of Warhammer and drinking. 


Club Banners-Quake City Rumble Jul. 2013
yes, I like donuts as well as beer!

I have an amazingly understanding wife and a job that allows me to travel to tournaments.  Since 2009, I have attended Battle of Beale in Tennessee; Alamo, Lonewolf, Bayou Battles-all in Texas; Adepticon in Illinois; Waagh Paca in Wisconsin; Socal Slaughter and West Coast GT in Southern California; and many, many tournaments here in Northern California.  Many of these I have attended multiple times and have earned my share of awards.  This makes me a pretty well-traveled tournament player. I also am the chief TO for the Quake City Rumble, a 100+ player tournament in San Francisco.   It’s these experiences I want to share in a blog. 

I plan to write about the tournaments I attend, the occasional battle report, tactical articles, hobby updates, lists, general tournament topics, running a tournament, and anything that takes my fancy.

So I hope you will find the blog entertaining and informative.


Hinge