Hi all,
Fresh off the heels of another tournament. This one was VICTORY OR DEATH, held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The venue was the Fraternal Order of Eagles hall (similar to a legion), which is our usual clubhouse...so kind of a hard tournament to skip :P. It was run by Dale from the Chumphammer podcast, who is also a member of my club. Tournament pack can be found HERE.
Decision was made to base the pack off the US Masters one, given how badly the Pacific Northwest crew got trounced. This meant it was a 20-0, Swedish Comp tournament, 2500 points, based on an 8-14 point band. Units under 25% also gave up half victory points.
MY LIST:
I played around with a few builds in THIS THREAD in the lead up to list submissions. Unfortunately the list I ultimately settled on required finishing my terrorgheist conversion, and given my hobby burnout after my marathon painting sessions for my last tournament I was thouroughly disinclined to do this. Thus I basically just tweaked the list that I took to my last tournament and submitted that. My list was:
General (Vampire Lord): Potion of Strength; Armour of Destiny; Dispel Scroll; Red Fury; Quickblood; Level 2 Wizard (Lore of Vampires); lance; shield; Hellsteed 473
Base (-15), Level 2 (-3), Dispel Scroll (-7), Hellsteed+Red Fury (-6), Quickblood (-5), Red Fury+Quickblood (-20) = -56
Vampire Lord: Talisman of Preservation; The Other Trickster's Shard; Ogre Blade; Red Fury; Quickblood; Level 4 Wizard (Lore of Vampires); shield; heavy armour; Hellsteed544
Base (-15), Level 4 (-21), 2nd Red Fury (-5), 2nd Vampire Lord (-10), 2nd cav char (-3), Ogre Blade (-3), Hellsteed+Red Fury (-6), Quickblood (-5), Red Fury+Quickblood+Magic Weapon (-26) =-94
Wight King: Ironcurse Icon; Nightshroud; Dragonbane Gem; great weapon; Skeletal Steed (barding) 160
Base (-4), mounted (-1), nightshroud (-2), 3rd non-necro cav char (-7) = -14
39 Skeleton Warriors: The Screaming Banner; Skeleton Champion; musician; standard bearer 250 (-4)
38 Skeleton Warriors: Skeleton Champion; musician; standard bearer 220 (-4)
5 Dire Wolves 40 (-2)
5 Dire Wolves 40 (-2)
5 Dire Wolves 40 (-2)
5 Dire Wolves 40 (-4)
10 Black Knights: Banner of Swiftness; barding; lances; Hell Knight; musician; standard bearer 305 (-18)
4 Vargheists: Vargoyle 194 (-10)
4 Vargheists: Vargoyle 194 (-10)
2,500 points / (300-220)/10 = 8.0
At an 8.0 my list was the lowest comp allowed in the tournament, meaning that it was possible for me to start down 600 points against a 14+ rated list. Not really where I wanted to be.
That said, provided that I protect my points well and use the vargheists to clear things out of the way of the bus, I should be fine. Best of all this list required that I paint no additional miniatures. Sounded good to me!
ROUND ONE: SKAVEN (8.0)
Grey Seer: 240.0 Pts General Magic Level 4
Warlord 190.0 Pts Heavy Armour, Fellblade [100.0]
Warlord 193.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour, Wizarding Hat [100.0]
Assassin 170.0 Pts 2ndWeapon; Throwing Stars, Weeping Blade [30.0], Potion of Strength [20.0]
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
48 Clanrats 295.5 pts Light Armour; Shields; Full Command
Ratling Gun weapon team
23 Clanrats 100.0 Pts Light Armour; Standard
48 Clanrats 310.5 Pts Light Armour; Shields; Full Command
Weapon Team Warpfire Thrower;
Warp-lightning Warp Cannon 90.0 Pts
Doomwheel 150.0 Pts
Doomwheel 150.0 Pts
Hellpit Abomination 235.0 Pts
First round pairing is based on comp scores, so I was doomed to face the only other 8.0-rated list in the field. I was hoping that this would be something like a Warriors, Vampires, or Demons list that would have to run at me and I could out-fight in combat. Unfortunately I was staring down the table at this instead.
So let's start with the rare section. First of all that WLC is concerning, because it has the potential to absolutely thrash my bus. Nothing kills black knights quite like small round S6-10.
The hellpit will also shred my vargheists and do a number on skeletons, so my only good counter for him is the vampires. And with regens not affected by the OTS, there's a very decent chance they could bounce off. I also have no flaming, so even if he doesn't stand back up he's liable to explode into rats that will hold my bus up for another round, and potentially set up a countercharge.
The two doomwheels don't scare the bus overmuch, but they will thrash a unit of vargheists in no time flat. Not where I want to be.
Finally....the characters. Ugh, the characters. He can feed me 45-point chieftans all day every day with skitterleap. He can load up his units with them, and mitigate what my vampires can do. Worst of all, after kiling them his fellblade will step up and thrash one of my vampires. The assassin with his potion is also a big threat, and the weaping blade will threaten even vampire lords if it slips just a single wound through. Concerning.
My plan going in is to crutch on magic a bit, and use my chaff to dictate the movement. Wind of Death and Curse of Years can chip his units down in size. Raise Dead can hold those hellpits and doomwheels back. I'll use Gaze to snipe out his weapons teams, and keep them from doing much. Finally I'm not super concerned about most of his spells, but skitterleap really has to go. Death Frenzy is the other scary one, but it's a mixed blessing as it allows me to frenzybait his blocks around.
Verdict: I'm concerned. I think I'm going to have to play it really conservative. I'll avoid whatever unit he loads up with characters and kill the rest. Only once his bus is whittled way down will I risk going in, and only then if I have to.
...back to work for now. Stay tuned for the writeup of the match itself!
Fresh off the heels of another tournament. This one was VICTORY OR DEATH, held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The venue was the Fraternal Order of Eagles hall (similar to a legion), which is our usual clubhouse...so kind of a hard tournament to skip :P. It was run by Dale from the Chumphammer podcast, who is also a member of my club. Tournament pack can be found HERE.
Decision was made to base the pack off the US Masters one, given how badly the Pacific Northwest crew got trounced. This meant it was a 20-0, Swedish Comp tournament, 2500 points, based on an 8-14 point band. Units under 25% also gave up half victory points.
MY LIST:
I played around with a few builds in THIS THREAD in the lead up to list submissions. Unfortunately the list I ultimately settled on required finishing my terrorgheist conversion, and given my hobby burnout after my marathon painting sessions for my last tournament I was thouroughly disinclined to do this. Thus I basically just tweaked the list that I took to my last tournament and submitted that. My list was:
General (Vampire Lord): Potion of Strength; Armour of Destiny; Dispel Scroll; Red Fury; Quickblood; Level 2 Wizard (Lore of Vampires); lance; shield; Hellsteed 473
Base (-15), Level 2 (-3), Dispel Scroll (-7), Hellsteed+Red Fury (-6), Quickblood (-5), Red Fury+Quickblood (-20) = -56
Vampire Lord: Talisman of Preservation; The Other Trickster's Shard; Ogre Blade; Red Fury; Quickblood; Level 4 Wizard (Lore of Vampires); shield; heavy armour; Hellsteed544
Base (-15), Level 4 (-21), 2nd Red Fury (-5), 2nd Vampire Lord (-10), 2nd cav char (-3), Ogre Blade (-3), Hellsteed+Red Fury (-6), Quickblood (-5), Red Fury+Quickblood+Magic Weapon (-26) =-94
Wight King: Ironcurse Icon; Nightshroud; Dragonbane Gem; great weapon; Skeletal Steed (barding) 160
Base (-4), mounted (-1), nightshroud (-2), 3rd non-necro cav char (-7) = -14
39 Skeleton Warriors: The Screaming Banner; Skeleton Champion; musician; standard bearer 250 (-4)
38 Skeleton Warriors: Skeleton Champion; musician; standard bearer 220 (-4)
5 Dire Wolves 40 (-2)
5 Dire Wolves 40 (-2)
5 Dire Wolves 40 (-2)
5 Dire Wolves 40 (-4)
10 Black Knights: Banner of Swiftness; barding; lances; Hell Knight; musician; standard bearer 305 (-18)
4 Vargheists: Vargoyle 194 (-10)
4 Vargheists: Vargoyle 194 (-10)
2,500 points / (300-220)/10 = 8.0
At an 8.0 my list was the lowest comp allowed in the tournament, meaning that it was possible for me to start down 600 points against a 14+ rated list. Not really where I wanted to be.
That said, provided that I protect my points well and use the vargheists to clear things out of the way of the bus, I should be fine. Best of all this list required that I paint no additional miniatures. Sounded good to me!
ROUND ONE: SKAVEN (8.0)
Grey Seer: 240.0 Pts General Magic Level 4
Warlord 190.0 Pts Heavy Armour, Fellblade [100.0]
Warlord 193.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour, Wizarding Hat [100.0]
Assassin 170.0 Pts 2ndWeapon; Throwing Stars, Weeping Blade [30.0], Potion of Strength [20.0]
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
Chieftain 47.0 Pts Halberd; Heavy Armour
48 Clanrats 295.5 pts Light Armour; Shields; Full Command
Ratling Gun weapon team
23 Clanrats 100.0 Pts Light Armour; Standard
48 Clanrats 310.5 Pts Light Armour; Shields; Full Command
Weapon Team Warpfire Thrower;
Warp-lightning Warp Cannon 90.0 Pts
Doomwheel 150.0 Pts
Doomwheel 150.0 Pts
Hellpit Abomination 235.0 Pts
First round pairing is based on comp scores, so I was doomed to face the only other 8.0-rated list in the field. I was hoping that this would be something like a Warriors, Vampires, or Demons list that would have to run at me and I could out-fight in combat. Unfortunately I was staring down the table at this instead.
So let's start with the rare section. First of all that WLC is concerning, because it has the potential to absolutely thrash my bus. Nothing kills black knights quite like small round S6-10.
The hellpit will also shred my vargheists and do a number on skeletons, so my only good counter for him is the vampires. And with regens not affected by the OTS, there's a very decent chance they could bounce off. I also have no flaming, so even if he doesn't stand back up he's liable to explode into rats that will hold my bus up for another round, and potentially set up a countercharge.
The two doomwheels don't scare the bus overmuch, but they will thrash a unit of vargheists in no time flat. Not where I want to be.
Finally....the characters. Ugh, the characters. He can feed me 45-point chieftans all day every day with skitterleap. He can load up his units with them, and mitigate what my vampires can do. Worst of all, after kiling them his fellblade will step up and thrash one of my vampires. The assassin with his potion is also a big threat, and the weaping blade will threaten even vampire lords if it slips just a single wound through. Concerning.
My plan going in is to crutch on magic a bit, and use my chaff to dictate the movement. Wind of Death and Curse of Years can chip his units down in size. Raise Dead can hold those hellpits and doomwheels back. I'll use Gaze to snipe out his weapons teams, and keep them from doing much. Finally I'm not super concerned about most of his spells, but skitterleap really has to go. Death Frenzy is the other scary one, but it's a mixed blessing as it allows me to frenzybait his blocks around.
Verdict: I'm concerned. I think I'm going to have to play it really conservative. I'll avoid whatever unit he loads up with characters and kill the rest. Only once his bus is whittled way down will I risk going in, and only then if I have to.
...back to work for now. Stay tuned for the writeup of the match itself!