Happy New Year and Paca Prep #2

Happy New Year’s fellow Warhammer Bros!

Well 2013 went out with a bit of a whimper as far as Warhammer tournaments as I only played in a single RTT since early June (no GTs).  I am looking forward to 2014 and have loaded up the calendar with events.  We have Waagh Paca (WI) in January, US Masters (NC) in Feb., LoneWolf (TX) and WCGT (SoCal) in March.  That is 4 major GTs in 4 different regions of the US in the first quarter alone.  Damn I am excited.  See Ramblings #1

First up of course is Waagh Paca and my first round death match against the dastardly Mike Gerrold.  Given the frozen hell that is the American Mid West (see ramblings #2) at this time of year, I was rather shocked to find out that electricity still worked in that part of the country (shocked…electricity…see what I did there?).  Imagine my greater surprise when I found out that Mike can not only read, but read my blog.  My sense of wonder knew no bounds when I discovered he had responded with a most excellent blog post of his own.  It can be found here Paca Prep From Last Years Champion.  I guess the diploma in a Cracker Jack box education Mike received in his ten years at Hamelin University was actually useful.  Now being a resident of Oakland, instincts lead me to demand

Actually one of the more peaceful debating methods here in Oakland

I would follow with a well-reasoned and unassailable post on how Orcs and Goblins is Da Best (see ramblings #3), how Californians are naturally smarter and better looking than Minnesotans, and expound on the many deficiencies of Mike Gerrold.  However I do not want to reduce Mike to a gibbering wreck and scare him off from attending Paca, so I shall wait for our match.  Instead I shall share some of my experiences in practice matches. 

I got 6 practice games in with the list I talked about in my last blog post and ended up going 4-2.  Alas one of those losses was against WoC, not a good sign.   Starting to feel a need to change it, I turned it in early and was informed by that great humanitarian and all around swell dude, Roge the Great (never hurts to suck up the Tournament Organizers!) that there were no take backs.  So here is the final….

Black Orc Warboss, ToP, Crown of Command

Orc Great Shaman, Scroll, Pigeon Plucker Pendant

NG Big Boss, BSB, LA, Charmed Shield, Obsidian Lodestone

Goblin Big Boss, Wolf, shrieking blade, Enchanted Shield, DB Gem

5 Wolf Riders, Spear, Shield

5 Wolf Riders, Spear, Shield

30 Big Uns, FC, XHW, Razor Std

21 Night Goblins, Mus, Std, 2 Fanatics

Troll

Troll

Wolf Chariot

Wolf Chariot

2 x Doom Diver

Rock Lobba

30 squigs, 10 squig herers

Mangler

Pretty much what I indicated in the last post.  Though as I typed this I see an error in the list (the extra NG should be a shield for the General or an extra herder), but this is the one I submitted so oh well.  What have I learned so far?

Black Orc Warboss-  I feel this was the weakest choice by far but damn am I having fun playing this guy.  He is very different then my last two combat lords, who were riding big beasties (Old Blood on Carno and Warboss on Wyvern).  Rather than heading off on his own or trying to set up a combo charge, he sits in the middle of his drinking buddies as an anchor.  He has proved to be surprisingly resilient, surviving every match.  I have to keep telling myself that 5+/4++ is not that great and to be careful.  At ST 7/8 plus Armor Piercing, what he hits feels it.  The Crown has allowed him to hold the line until help can come along…or not.  Two matches saw the unit destroyed around him and the game ending with this bad boy engaged with several units.  It conjures up all the great holding actions in history.  The Spartans at Thermopylae, the airborne at Bastogne, Gandalf holding the bridge against the Balrog, Custer’s last stand.  Images of these heroic stands are one of the reasons I play this game.

Ok, some of those last stands do not end well for the last standee!

Artillery-  Frankly I was close to dropping these things.  At best they have plinked a wound off of random models.  Unfortunately they usually just blow themselves up without contributing anything accept to my opponents victory point total .  Maybe it is I don’t identify with artillery, or don’t like the feel of gunlines, or have crappy artillery dice, or expect it to land on me, or whatever.  They have performed so bad that I am pining for my spear chukkas!  However, I reigned in my temptations and kept them in the list.  They are just too good against too many threats, especially WoC!  So I will take the advice of that great poet-warrior, Oddball.

I have nothing but beautiful thoughts for those Doom Divers!

Magic-  Ah Foot of Gork. 

Two of my wins was that spell going crazy on my opponent.  Frankly, it really did not matter what kind of list my opponent had, it was all a pile of models after Gork danced a fine Irish jig on his army.  However, the foot has stomped my own troops in every game but 2.  One of those games I never was able to cast the spell and the other I did not know it.  In one of those, it won my opponent the game when it stomped on my own shaman, who failed both his LoS and Ward and was killed!

Despite my random success with Foot, I am really disappointed in my magic phase.  The biggest surprise is how much I miss my NG Shaman.  I think this is a function of the Big Waagh Spell Lore.  Frankly my opponents save their Dispel Dice for Foot if I am not in combat and ‘er We Go when I am.  The rest of the lore is just not threatening.  Oh I can do some stuff with the movement spell, but to be really useful, I need a big winds roll.  Same with ‘eadbutt.   When I had the NG Shaman, I could save 5-6 dice for foot and use the odd PD or 2 to cast a couple of low casting value spells with the help of the mushrooms, get those off and hopefully steal some DD. 

 

yes, I know, "Foot of Gork is really good" is not deep and insightful analysis

The rest of the army has performed pretty much how I expected.  Occasionally animosity bites me in the ass but you really have to roll with that if you play O&G.  I have had a couple of tricks work out surprisingly well but we will save those for the post paca discussion. 

-Michael

Ramblings #1

Since it is the season for resolutions, one of mine is to keep this blog active and try to drop 2 posts a month.  Given my tournament calendar, I suspect this will be pretty easy during the first part of the year.

Ramblings #2

I am sitting here in flip flops and shorts in the dead of winter.  It is a wonderful 65 degrees, sunny, with a kiss of a breeze.  As an avid San Francisco Forty Niner fan, my team will be traveling to Green Bay Wisconsin this weekend to play the Packers.  I decided to check the weather forecast plus wind chill and saw this. 

Who lives in this frozen hell?

Just to point out it will literally be 95 degrees warmer where I live!  Waagh Paca btw is held at the mid way point between Green Bay and Steven Point.

Ramblings #3

I recently saw the desolation of Smaug and have to say those orcs are very bad ass!

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