So its been a couple of weeks since my last blog post, so I figured I’d give you all an update as to where I’ve been with painting recently.
After my experience at Crossroads GT (Which was a blast and if you want to hear about it, you can listen to Ohiohammer Episode 38), I realized that my list had some major weaknesses.
1. My banishment spells were lower strength than I’d like
2. the 40 Man Halberd Block of troops served for nothing, but an expensive Wizard Bunker
3. the Pistolers died way to easy. Playing with 2 or even 3 units is completely different than playing with only 1.
4. I had very little chaff that I could just throw away to stop the oncoming onslaught when I was forced in matchups that were no good.
5. Crossbowmen are truly worthless.
6. My inner Circle knight bus was sent off on its own all to often and while effective, did not perform as well as it could have.
To compensate for these faults I will be making the following changes to my Adepticon 2013 List:
1. The Halberd Block will drop to 18
2. I will drop the Pistolers entirely
3. I will drop the Crossbowmen Entirely
4. I will be adding 2 mounted Lvl 1 Wizards (Lore of light) that will be 77 points each and will put them in the inner circle knight bus
5. will be adding 2 units of 6 Great Weapon Knights to my core. as disposable chaff
The theory behind this is that I will be able to throw the fast parts of my army out in front (the Great Weapon Knights) to go either character or War Machine Hunting. With their 2 + A/S they are pretty resilient and should be able to deal with alot of chaff. If they die, they are also cheap enough, I wont care. The Lvl 1 Light Wizards are there for the Banishment Bonus (which now will mean I have Str 7 Banishment and Str 6 as well). This should help in all those potential VC/Daemons matchups that I may face.
So here’s some pics of progress:
Now One thing I didnt talk about is now that I am Painting these Great Weapon Knights, I thought to myself – “How Awesome would it be to have 50 for a single unit!” So I decided that I was going to work on 50 of them instead of just the 2 units of 6. I figure this will motivate me to finish them all at one time instead of putting them on the back burner.
Here is what the finished product looks like.
I like them, but I will say – now that I’m through with my first 12 I needed a break from knights. Luckily I have a Dreadball crew that I’ve been wanting to paint. Here’s a look at them painted:
I stuck with the same color scheme as my Altdorf army, mainly because I wanted to make these guys represent that town for Blood bowl as well (yet another game I’ve never played, but dream of.
Well that’s pretty much it on the painting end. On the gaming end, the GLWL is almost at a close and I had my scheduled game vs Matt Horst.
Matt Brought Empire vs my Empire army and while some argue the Mirror Match is kind of boring, I argue for the Empire that it is very challenging. Matt is a traditional fluff player and has often joked that I am only a tournament player in the past, as such I thought I’d take a fluffier list against him.
I brought:
A General on a Griffon with only Full Plate Armour, Shield, and Lance
A Arch Lector on a War Altar with no upgrades (yep no armour)
A Lvl 2 Death Wizard with nothothing on him
A Warrior Priest on a Barded Warhorse Hvy Armour and a shield
A Celestial Hurricanum
5 Demigriffons
A Cannon
A Mortar
A Master Engineer on Mechanical Steed
9 Inner Circle Knights Full Command
5 Demigriffons with Banner only and it was the Banner of Swiftness
43 Halberders Full Command
A BsB on Foot with Banner of LD
Matt Brought:
General on Griffon with the Obsidian Blade and Other Tricksters Shard
BsB on Foot
Lvl 4 Fire Wizard
2 Cannons
A Steam Tank
5 Demi Griffons
10 Inner Circle Knights Full Command
40 halberders
25 Swordsmen
20 Handgunners.
At first sight my thought was – “2 Cannons, a Steam tank, 10 Inner Circle knights, and 5 Demigriffons and this is fluff). That’s when Matt joked smiling – “Who do you think I learned from.”
To be honest, I wasn’t very confident in the matchup because basically everything I had – he had better. Further my woes in that we played Dawn Attack and my 5 Demigriffons ended on my Left Flank while my Altar and my Hurricanum ended on my Right Flank. This paired with all of his army rolling center or players choice and I figured I was in for a long game.
Notable Highlights of the game were:
- My cannon, with rerolls from the Master Engineer, blows up on my turn 1.
- My Mortar does a Direct Hit on his Horde of Halberders and causes 3 wounds (yes thats with rolling 28 hits and of course the str 6 missed)
- I move most of my stuff forward so I know I have the better charge distance, but that he has no real good options. My Griffon sets behind the Demigriffons on the Left Flank
- His cannons kill my Arch Lector off the War Altar on his turn 1
- He Moves to his left with the Inner Circle Knights unknowingly putting my Demigriffons in Charge Range.
- My Turn 2 I Charge and Wipe the Inner Circle knights with the Demigriffons and overrun into the Halberds. I also attempt Doom and Darkness on the Steam tank with the idea that immediately after I will cast Spirit leech, I miscast on 3 dice and have no dice left.
- His turn 2 – He misfires with his Steam Tank and rolls where he is unable to move. His Cannnons either Misfire or fall short of my Griffon. And he starts moving his army forward so he is in charge range, but I am not. Because of the way my Demigriffons Overran from the Knights, I only have 2 in combat with the halberds. I am able to still win and bring the rest of my unit within striking by Combat Reform.
- My turn 3 – I move my RH Flank back all by 2″-4″ respectively. This now takes his 16 inch Demigriff charge options (which are reliable) to 18 inch charges or even out of charge range. I move my Inner Circle Knights into charge range of the Steam tank for next turn. Which I assume he will use to turn and hit my Demigriffons (which I will not be able to recover from). Finally I try and cast Doom and Darkness again on the Steam Tank followed by Spirit leech. I again miscast on the Doom and Darkness but this time suck my only wizard into the warp. The Demi Griffon kill loads of Halberders, but they are still steadfast so they hold.
- Matt’s turn 3 – This I believe is where I won the game (albeit a gift from Matt). Matt knows his Steam Tank can move 360, but what he doesn’t know is that it can Charge 360. Because of this he sends it at the my Inner Circle Knights and rolls a 16″ move which gets there. He wins combat, but I do not run (which I wish I had). He also takes his Demigriffons and attempts a 18″ Charge on my Halberds (he needs an 11) which he thank goodness fails. His decision with the Steam Tank allows my Demigriffons to win combat, restrain from pursuit, and reform to a position where I can charge his Demigriffons in the flank during my turn.
- My turn 4 – I Execute the Charge on the Demigriffons, Win Combat and run them down. By now he is dancing with my Griffon, but by out maneuvering him, I am able to make a charge on to one of his cannons this turn. I kill it and overrun into the other one. Which I kill in Matts Turn 4. The Steam Tank takes no wounds from my knights and we sit there. I do throw my Engineer on Mechanical Steed in front of one of his units of swordsmen.
-Matt’s turn 4 – Reeling from the loss of his Right Flank and figuring out that he will not out maneuver my Griffon Rider purely on experience he moves his Griffon in pursuit of my Demigriffons (although after ensuing combat where I kill a block unit of Swordsmen and run them down he will not be in range). When I kill his second Cannon in this turn I do then decide to overrun into the Handgunners Flank as his Griffon will be unable to charge mine.
- My Turn 5 – At this point, I clearly have the game locked up. I charge my Demigriffons into his last unit of Swordsmen’s rear, further taking them away from his General on a Griffon. I also move my War Altar and Hurricanum close to the Demigriffons just to keep them out of charge range of his Griffon as well.
- Matt’s turn 5 – With only his steam tank in combat with my Inner Circle knights and his Griffon left on the board. Matt understandably is very worried about his Griffons Safety. He Starts to consolidate his losses and fly’s the Griffon 20″ away from my army. His Steam Tank finally grinds down the last of the knights in combat.
My Turn 6 and Matt’s Turn 6 – I make the Handgunners run and since everything else is out of range to do anything, we call it a game.
My Total – 2178
Matt’s Total – 878
Game Recap, I learned how much I missed my Banishment and how much I feel I need the 3 Cannons on the board. I was able to win this game without them and without much luck at all perhaps, but I definitely will be keeping them in most of my armies. Other than that, I felt I made the right decisions, but also that this game was not won by my great tactics – rather by Matt’s most minor mistakes. This along with my journey at Crossroads has taught me a lot lately about the little things. It turns out more and more lately that I recognize that its the little things that most often win or lose games.
Anyway Hope you enjoyed this post. Talk to you guys soon.