Post by PaleKing on Nov 4, 2008 16:00:00 GMT
After a fun day of three games on sunday at the invitational tournament I thought I'd scribble down a few notes from my games while they were still fresh(ish) in my mind.
I was taking Nurgle Daemons. The list is the same list that I've taken for every one of my Daemon games. I'm not planning on changing it or expanding the army in any way. It's filthy enough as it is, without introducing Bloodthirsters, Flamers, Flesh Hounds or The Masque into the equation! I'd never really intended to collect a Daemon army but I ended up with a Unit of Plague Bearers and a unit of Furies all painted up in the summer for what was then meant to be a Hordes of Chaos army so I thought I'd do quick and easy Nurgle army from the Daemon book. That ended up an expensive choice! 55 metal PBs, metal gaffer, metal beasts, metal swarms and a metal special character. The only plastic in there was the bodies of the Furies for which I used Ghouls. To cap it all I now hear rumours of plastic Plaguebearers on the horizon...
Anyway:
Great Unclean One
Level 4 Mage,
Bale Sword (hits auto-wound for D6 wounds - Dragon killer...)
Herald - BSB
Great Icon of Despair (-2 Ld)
Stream of Bile (Breath weapon)
Slime Trail (no bonuses for flanking etc)
Epidemius
Racks up a tally to give bonuses such as poison on a 4+, bonus' to cast etc.
3 units of Plaguebearers - Each with full command, each with Standard of Eternal Viulence (poison wounds cause +1 CR)
7 Furies
3 Nurgling Swarms
2 Beasts of Nurgle
So, the army is obviously all based around poison as everything in the army apart from the Furies causes poison. Epidemius keeps a tally of wounds caused by Daemons and once it reaches eight all poison on the table auto-wounds on fours instead of sixes. So, once that kicks in just about everything on the table rolls the 4+ to hit, which aouto-wounds. This couples with the Standards in the Plaguebearers units which cause each poisoned wound to add +1 to CR. This can rack up huge combat resolution results quite quickly. The other obvious aspect of the army is causing Fear and Terror at -2 leadership.Obviously it dosn't always work out work out quite like that...
Game One - vs Brian Forrester - Empire
Excellent - Brian is a good guy from the DWARF crowd who always puts down a nice Empire force so I was pleased to get a game in with him for game one. Brian is in the process of re-themeing his army around Flagellants and had three big blocks of 30 Flagellants, Arch Lector on War Altar, two cannons, Archers, Handgunners, two mages, two units of Outriders and a unit of Knights.
All those unbreakable Flagellants were just what an Empire players needed against my Daemons and it was obviously going to be a mash-up in the centre of the table as I chucked my three units of Plaguebearers straight up the middle. I put the Furies into a cannon and also managed to knock out an enemy mage with them too so they certainly paid for themselves. I managed to get a Beast of Nurgle into a mage too and forced his handgunners and archers fleeing ahead of the incoming Plaguebearers. The Great Unclean One headed towards Brians most expensive and deadly sections of the army, hoping to weather the storm from the Outriders with enough wounds left to get to the knights or the War Altar. Brians Knights rolled huge on a flee roll and nealy ended off the table before they just about rallied, but he got his War Altar stuck in to the GUO. I knew that there was a good chance of the Speculum (swap stats) kicking in but I reckoned that I still had a pretty decent chance of taking him out as even with swapped stats I would have the Balesword/Flail to give me two S6, auto-wound, D6 wound attacks. However - Brians big impact hits coupled with my lousy saves contributed to a combat that saw Gorthrax the Bloated banished back to the Warp by the divine might of Sigmar.
So - A major blow for the Daemons and meanwhile in the centre those big blocks of Falgellants were losing combats against my Plaguebearers but holding firm of course. The game ended in a draw but I think that if it had gone on much longer and I'm sure that Brians cavalry would have started to tip the balance in his favour. It was cool to play against Brian at last and the game flowed nicely along without any hiccups at all. So, 30 points each for the draw.
Game two - Jenna - Dark Elves
My second Game was against another player from DWARF, Jenna, who was using a Dark Elf army. Jenna's army was pretty monster and magic - heavy with two Hydras and a Dragon and six levels of magic. In addition she took two units of crossbows, a big unit of 30 spear, a unit of Black Guard and six Cold One Knights. Actually, of all the different Druchii lists that I might have faced, this is the one that my Daemons are probably best able to cope with as unlike my Empire army I don't have to worry about all those Fear-causers. Also, Jenna wasn't fielding any poisoned Witches which was a relief as poison can hurt my high toughness Daemons. The big blocks of Elves are always going to be juicy targets for the spells that force toughness tests, though she was pretty-magic heavy too, and I only had four dispel dice and no scrolls so I wasn't too confident in getting much magic off. Still - I was quite glad not to be facing the DE "Pit of Shades" army that was rampaging around on the next table along.
Anyway - Early on Jenna put her Dragon out in front of my lines and pushed a Hydra up too. This was an opportunity to get into combat with a T3 lord-level Sorceress that I couldn't turn down and I managed to get a unit of Plaguebearers into the Dragon. The PBs took out the Sorceress and next turn I got the Beasts of Nurgle in too. This was enough to take the Dragon. In the meantime the GUO took out a Hydra and the Cold One Knights decimated a unit of Plaguebearers. The Black Guard were beating up a second unit of Plaguebearers but I managed to get some support in to even up that combat. With Jenna's magic defence starting to crumble I got Plague Wind off on the targets of choice. The unit of 30 Spear took 30 T3 toughness tests and the remains of the unit were munched up by the Nurglings that get created by the secondary effects of that spell. This was another fun game that and it ended up with a big enough win for me to grab myself 60 tournament points.
Game three - Andy Duncan - Lizardmen
The third game was against Andy Duncan and his nice-looking Lizardmen army. Andy's Lizards are pale bone and green and they look great so it was good to finally get a game against him. Poisoned shooting is probably my Daemons worst nightmare to be honest as trying to get into combat with skirmishers while they poison me on a 4+, while march-blocked by flyers etc becomes an impossible task. However - there were a few close combat targets up there, if I could only get to them before being whittled down too much. With this in mind I chucked my GUO straight down the middle and smashed Andy's Stagadon. My G.U.O was so excited by that that he miscast and lost a level (and a big spell). Oh well - it could be worse, 24 hours earlier in a practice game against Jeff my GUO rolled up those snake eyes and was devoured by the Warp (there is always a bigger Daemon...)
Most of my army was march-blocked and was suffering badly from Skink blowpipes as they trudged forward trying to get into some decent opponents. Andy was faced with the strange decision of whether to try and keep Epidemius alive as while he was on the table Andy's ranged poison was potentially more useful to him than my close-combat poison was to me. I was taking a hammering until about turn four or so, when Andy's Slann decided to flee from a charge. He rolled big and fled clean off the table. At the same time his Kroxigors and Saurus all had bad combats and were all cut down by pursuing Plaguebearers. We ended in a draw but it could easilly have been a win to Andy on another day.
So - one win and two draws and all in all a very enjoyable weekend. Hats off to Jeff for coming over from Germany for the weekend, and cheers to Andy P and Andy Duncan (Xavier) for joining some of us Stirling chaps out on the saturday night. The format that Donald came up with worked really well. He has created a system that needs no tournament organizer and no players pack so seems perfect for a casual tournament like this one.
I was taking Nurgle Daemons. The list is the same list that I've taken for every one of my Daemon games. I'm not planning on changing it or expanding the army in any way. It's filthy enough as it is, without introducing Bloodthirsters, Flamers, Flesh Hounds or The Masque into the equation! I'd never really intended to collect a Daemon army but I ended up with a Unit of Plague Bearers and a unit of Furies all painted up in the summer for what was then meant to be a Hordes of Chaos army so I thought I'd do quick and easy Nurgle army from the Daemon book. That ended up an expensive choice! 55 metal PBs, metal gaffer, metal beasts, metal swarms and a metal special character. The only plastic in there was the bodies of the Furies for which I used Ghouls. To cap it all I now hear rumours of plastic Plaguebearers on the horizon...
Anyway:
Great Unclean One
Level 4 Mage,
Bale Sword (hits auto-wound for D6 wounds - Dragon killer...)
Herald - BSB
Great Icon of Despair (-2 Ld)
Stream of Bile (Breath weapon)
Slime Trail (no bonuses for flanking etc)
Epidemius
Racks up a tally to give bonuses such as poison on a 4+, bonus' to cast etc.
3 units of Plaguebearers - Each with full command, each with Standard of Eternal Viulence (poison wounds cause +1 CR)
7 Furies
3 Nurgling Swarms
2 Beasts of Nurgle
So, the army is obviously all based around poison as everything in the army apart from the Furies causes poison. Epidemius keeps a tally of wounds caused by Daemons and once it reaches eight all poison on the table auto-wounds on fours instead of sixes. So, once that kicks in just about everything on the table rolls the 4+ to hit, which aouto-wounds. This couples with the Standards in the Plaguebearers units which cause each poisoned wound to add +1 to CR. This can rack up huge combat resolution results quite quickly. The other obvious aspect of the army is causing Fear and Terror at -2 leadership.Obviously it dosn't always work out work out quite like that...
Game One - vs Brian Forrester - Empire
Excellent - Brian is a good guy from the DWARF crowd who always puts down a nice Empire force so I was pleased to get a game in with him for game one. Brian is in the process of re-themeing his army around Flagellants and had three big blocks of 30 Flagellants, Arch Lector on War Altar, two cannons, Archers, Handgunners, two mages, two units of Outriders and a unit of Knights.
All those unbreakable Flagellants were just what an Empire players needed against my Daemons and it was obviously going to be a mash-up in the centre of the table as I chucked my three units of Plaguebearers straight up the middle. I put the Furies into a cannon and also managed to knock out an enemy mage with them too so they certainly paid for themselves. I managed to get a Beast of Nurgle into a mage too and forced his handgunners and archers fleeing ahead of the incoming Plaguebearers. The Great Unclean One headed towards Brians most expensive and deadly sections of the army, hoping to weather the storm from the Outriders with enough wounds left to get to the knights or the War Altar. Brians Knights rolled huge on a flee roll and nealy ended off the table before they just about rallied, but he got his War Altar stuck in to the GUO. I knew that there was a good chance of the Speculum (swap stats) kicking in but I reckoned that I still had a pretty decent chance of taking him out as even with swapped stats I would have the Balesword/Flail to give me two S6, auto-wound, D6 wound attacks. However - Brians big impact hits coupled with my lousy saves contributed to a combat that saw Gorthrax the Bloated banished back to the Warp by the divine might of Sigmar.
So - A major blow for the Daemons and meanwhile in the centre those big blocks of Falgellants were losing combats against my Plaguebearers but holding firm of course. The game ended in a draw but I think that if it had gone on much longer and I'm sure that Brians cavalry would have started to tip the balance in his favour. It was cool to play against Brian at last and the game flowed nicely along without any hiccups at all. So, 30 points each for the draw.
Game two - Jenna - Dark Elves
My second Game was against another player from DWARF, Jenna, who was using a Dark Elf army. Jenna's army was pretty monster and magic - heavy with two Hydras and a Dragon and six levels of magic. In addition she took two units of crossbows, a big unit of 30 spear, a unit of Black Guard and six Cold One Knights. Actually, of all the different Druchii lists that I might have faced, this is the one that my Daemons are probably best able to cope with as unlike my Empire army I don't have to worry about all those Fear-causers. Also, Jenna wasn't fielding any poisoned Witches which was a relief as poison can hurt my high toughness Daemons. The big blocks of Elves are always going to be juicy targets for the spells that force toughness tests, though she was pretty-magic heavy too, and I only had four dispel dice and no scrolls so I wasn't too confident in getting much magic off. Still - I was quite glad not to be facing the DE "Pit of Shades" army that was rampaging around on the next table along.
Anyway - Early on Jenna put her Dragon out in front of my lines and pushed a Hydra up too. This was an opportunity to get into combat with a T3 lord-level Sorceress that I couldn't turn down and I managed to get a unit of Plaguebearers into the Dragon. The PBs took out the Sorceress and next turn I got the Beasts of Nurgle in too. This was enough to take the Dragon. In the meantime the GUO took out a Hydra and the Cold One Knights decimated a unit of Plaguebearers. The Black Guard were beating up a second unit of Plaguebearers but I managed to get some support in to even up that combat. With Jenna's magic defence starting to crumble I got Plague Wind off on the targets of choice. The unit of 30 Spear took 30 T3 toughness tests and the remains of the unit were munched up by the Nurglings that get created by the secondary effects of that spell. This was another fun game that and it ended up with a big enough win for me to grab myself 60 tournament points.
Game three - Andy Duncan - Lizardmen
The third game was against Andy Duncan and his nice-looking Lizardmen army. Andy's Lizards are pale bone and green and they look great so it was good to finally get a game against him. Poisoned shooting is probably my Daemons worst nightmare to be honest as trying to get into combat with skirmishers while they poison me on a 4+, while march-blocked by flyers etc becomes an impossible task. However - there were a few close combat targets up there, if I could only get to them before being whittled down too much. With this in mind I chucked my GUO straight down the middle and smashed Andy's Stagadon. My G.U.O was so excited by that that he miscast and lost a level (and a big spell). Oh well - it could be worse, 24 hours earlier in a practice game against Jeff my GUO rolled up those snake eyes and was devoured by the Warp (there is always a bigger Daemon...)
Most of my army was march-blocked and was suffering badly from Skink blowpipes as they trudged forward trying to get into some decent opponents. Andy was faced with the strange decision of whether to try and keep Epidemius alive as while he was on the table Andy's ranged poison was potentially more useful to him than my close-combat poison was to me. I was taking a hammering until about turn four or so, when Andy's Slann decided to flee from a charge. He rolled big and fled clean off the table. At the same time his Kroxigors and Saurus all had bad combats and were all cut down by pursuing Plaguebearers. We ended in a draw but it could easilly have been a win to Andy on another day.
So - one win and two draws and all in all a very enjoyable weekend. Hats off to Jeff for coming over from Germany for the weekend, and cheers to Andy P and Andy Duncan (Xavier) for joining some of us Stirling chaps out on the saturday night. The format that Donald came up with worked really well. He has created a system that needs no tournament organizer and no players pack so seems perfect for a casual tournament like this one.