Army Building
Painting
Having played Beasts of Chaos consistently since they were released, not just every now and then like some players, I mean consistently i.e. ( over three years worth of friendly games, tourney practise games and 18 events across the country) I was more then a little pi$$ed off at the changes to 7th which affect the Beasts.
7th ed has meant that I needed to make changes to my list. I normally run with a herd heavy army with a couple of special and rare choices and I have gone 50/50 with that army since the changes were introduced. It became clear that rules such as ambushers coming on as a line flush with the table edge and only being able to move were a hindrance. No ranks for being in combat with a 50mm wide or less base were a restriction as well. Crossfire is handy but the ambush changes means it's hard to get in the right place at the right time and you need to have the heavy hitters in your army to make units break.
Having played Beasts for so long I have gone through the iterations of Undivided, Tzeentch, Slaanesh and currently I am dabbling with Khorne. Earlier this year I took my normal Undivided list to Dogcon and managed a top 10 result. The last 6th ed list I took to a tournament was a Khorne Beasts army and I managed a top 3 result.
I played a couple of 2000pt games with a Khorne Beast army earlier this year with friends who were practising for the Sydney GT and I didn't taken a loss with it, in fact it was very effective :)
The Brisbane GT this year was also 2000pts, so I made some minor tweaks to that army to bring it in line with the 7th ed changes, i.e. dropping big herds for little herds and just generally tweaking points here and there.
This is what I ended up taking:
I would have preferred the flexibility of 4 chariots and an extra unit of Minotaurs, but not everyone has deep pockets to fork out for new models on the eve of an event. So the 6 chariots stayed, and the saw me garner a comp score of 22/30, averaging 3's and 4's, FWIW what I expected for the army, it's not rock hard, but it's not a soft touch either.
GW had switched from the Brisbane Town Hall to the much nicer Chifley at Lennon's right on the Queen St Mall in the City. The air-conditioned comfort in plush surroundings only lacked the provision of refreshments, (tea, coffee and water were supplied) but with a bar downstairs and the food courts of the mall easily accessible this rates as the second best venue I've ever been to for a tournament. Nth Sydney Anzac Memorial Club rates higher because food is on site, and you can have a drink at your table while playing.
GW staff in Brisbane also went one step further this year and consulted with the local gaming community as to what they wanted from their event. This turned out to be a godsend for us players rather then the usual lacklustre GW tournament pack, we got a well written tournament pack based on tried and true tournament marking systems. Everyone who paid for their ticket received a printed rules pack well in advance of the event so there were no hidden rules or surprise changes on the day. Only way GW could top that would be to make the rules pack available before buying a ticket - so the players knew what they were buying into.
Pre event, the Minister for Finances decided that having dinner with friends was a good idea the night before an event. Gotta rate that one highly on the "jeez do we have to" list. Dinnner combined with a late night alarm call out for the Ministers work meant home was reached at 1:30am. Add in some last minute movement tray making and an early start meant that lack of sleep contributed greatly to my first day performance.
to the games.
Game 1. Pitched Battle, Luke Taylor - Khorne Daemonic LegionLuke had three units of Bloodletters, one with 4+ Ward Save Banner, 3 units of Flesh Hounds, Daemon Prince and Exalted Daemon.
I did the right thing and baited his units with hounds and herds and counter charged with my chariots and bigger units, but when you roll abysmally, 1's & 2's for impact hits or hitting but not wounding, then your pushing the proverbial uphill. My general got slaughtered in two rounds of combat with the DP. Armour of Damnation is great, but Luke's rolling was tops, and even with the forced reroll he still got five attacks through in both rounds. Thank the Warhammer gods for Gaze of the Gods - but even that wasn't enough :(
15-5 loss.
Jonathon is a young fella who had a pretty tidy Dwarf list. Unit of Ironbreakers, Unit of Warriors, Unit of Hammerers, Unit of Thunderers, Unit of Crossbows, Organ gun, Unit of Rangers, Bugman, Rune Lord, BSB Thane.
Damn Dwarves are a tough nut to crack. Three chariots into the front of a normal Dwarf Warrior unit and I bounced WTF!!! Ambushing herd and furies dealt with the organ gun. I nailed all three of his messengers and got two of my own off, one ran away off the table from something dying nearby. Unruly on my herds screwed up my right flank with the same unit with Wargors in it failing three times in a row. End of the game we totted up points and worked out a 12-8 loss to me. FWIW at the end of the day when discussing this game with Mike the TO I remembered Jonathon and I both hadn't added in our Messenger points. Sorted it out with Jonathon the next morning and fixed the paper work.
10-10 draw.
Sean is one of the Toowoomba crew who'd told me he'd only been playing for 6 months. His empire army was very well painted and had Unit of Sword with detachment militia and handgunners, Unit of Spearmen with detachment militia and handgunners, Unit 5 IC Knights, Mortar, Cannon, Helblaster and Steam Tank with Cannon. Characters were an EC on foot, lvl 2 mage, lvl 2 mage and BSB all on foot.
Sean castled up in the centre of his deployment zone, I spread out a bit, avoiding the mortar and cannon by hiding behind a big wood with my Khornegors and Minotaurs. His helblaster was central to his castle and I knew I had to get into it if I was to have any chance at taking on his big infantry units. I stuck 3 chariots out on my left to take on his knight unit which he'd left unsupported.
I marched forward and took a beating on my Minotaurs with the helblaster which went bang on it's third barrel taking it out. But not before it took out two of my minos :( The knights charged on chariot which fled and the other two counter charged taking it out. Ambushing hounds (all came up where I wanted, behind his main units - what a surprise) and herds took out his mortar and cannon. Sean sent his Stank across the front of his battle line and lined up a charge on one of my chariots. I fled and hit him in the flank with my khornegor unit with beastlord. Took me two rounds of dice to take it out. It's demise saw his generals unit bug it back through a waiting hound unit which meant game over in turn 4.
20-0 win.
A relaxing night in front of the box watching Pirates 2 (crappy special effects on Davey's crew) and F&F Tokyo Drift (tidy).
Again with the early start, except this time I missed half of the army beauty pageant. Only two armies did it for me with both conversions and technical excellence of painting (seeing as it would be wrong to vote for my own ;)) and I'd seen both before.
Shane is a regular on WAU and he had a pretty balanced army with two units of Saurus, 2 x 3 Kroxigors, 1 x 3 Salamanders, 3 units of skinks, 1 skink priest, Old Blood on foot, BSB on Cold one and hero on cold one. He deployed centrally with his Sallies, flanked by a Saurus unit on either side, then Kroxi on the outside of those, both screened by skinks. Scouting skins went into a convenient swamp, skink priest in a tower, BSB in one Saurus unit, Old blood and other hero in the other unit of Saurus.
A screening unit of skinks fled the two chariots charging them, leaving the Kroxi's in the way of the chariots, plus a third chariot. All three chariots rolled high for impact hits and the Kroxi's were red mist. The over run put them out of the way of the Saurus unit. The skink priest fell to an ambushing herd on the third turn. The scouting skinks in the pond fell to a herd charge. The other unit of kroxis killed one spawn and over ran inoto the other, I counter charged with two chariots, but didn't roll high this time and lost one chariot to the S7 attacks. I still won combat though. The Sallies were charged by a chariot and then flank charged by the Khornegors with Beastlord. I destroyed them in combat but was blocked from over running. I got a combo charge on his Old Blood Saurus unit with Chariots and paid the penalty of doing the two chariots in his flank as the Old Blood was S7. I still won combat but he held. His other Saurus unit with BSB went through my lines out the back and the returned to the table in the 6th. Taking out some dogs and a chariot or two in the process.
11-9 win.
Great game overall but I post game I think I may have jibbed Shane with the chariot charge on his Sallies as I didn't hit the closest monster, just the one which was poking it's nose out of the difficult terrain graveyard. Sorry mate.
Brad is the GW Chermside store Manager and he was playing with the GW City store Bretonnian army with 2 x KotR, 1 Errants, 2 x Men at Arms units, 1 x Archers, 3 Pegs, Treb, General on Hippo, BSB, Maiden on foot, Paladin.
I stacked one side to avoid the majority of his knight units, lucky I had more deployments to do this :) I got first turn and moved up. His Hippo charged a herd with two wargors, declared challenge, I declined. He hit me and did nothing. I hit back and did wounds on the hippo which failed it's ward save. We totted up results and I'd won combat, then I remembered to fight with a 2nd ranked ungor with spear who poked the hippo in the eye wounding it on 6's. It failed it's ward and was killed out right - GO THE UNGOR!!! :D The General failed his break test and fled 7, I ran 4. Not an auspicious start for a Kill the General Scenario. In my turn I charged his general, he fled and didn't roll high enough, so he was toast. His second turn he charged the minos with KoTR but failed his fear test. This let me get the charge off with the minos, plus the over running herd from earlier into the flank, plus a snaking dog unit into his flanks as well to negate his ranks. I won that combat and ran them down with the minos :) A Men at arms unit charged the minos in the flank, but again a failed fear test saw them sit and twiddle their thumbs. The minos then charged them in the flank and minced them, pursuing off the board. They came back on and killed the mage in a flurry of Khorne fury later in the game.
A combined chariot, herd in flank and herd in rear charge on the Errants unit with BSB won combat but a double 1 hold for the break test saw me rear charged by the pegs into the flanking herd, I lost combat and was run down. The Treb was destroyed by the furies, which over ran into the archers - which made them pop :) The archers were then rear charged by a herd which chewed them up, causing them to break and get run down, this caused the other men at arms unit to take a panic which they failed and fled into impassable terrain making them deader then a door nail. The Khornegor unit with Beastlord flank charged a Knight unit, knocking the stuffing out of them, but pursued into range of a flank charging KoTR unit which caused some big damage. I ended up winning combat and running them down as well. The only thing left at the end of the game was two Peg Knights.
20-0 win
Mark had a pretty standard Woody army, two units archers one with banner of I shoot you when charging, two wardancer units, two dryad units, scouts, waywatchers, Eagle, Noble, Lord, mage, Branchwraith.
Woodies are a Beasts army nemesis and they are one army I consistently struggle against, but also having played more then my fair share of them (4 guys I play regularly have Woodies) means I know how to minimise my losses as best I can i.e. don't ambush ;)
Lucky me, I won first turn and away I went. I screened my frenzy units with herd as best I could to absorb the shooting barrage. Unfortunately I had dropped my wargors in with the Minotaurs and they copped an absolute shelacking in the first firing round from one unit of archers on a hill, plus character plus Hail of Doom from the other character. I lost one Wargor, one wound on the other Wargor and one on the Minotaurs. Next turn saw them whittled down even more. The Wargor jumped unit and joined a herd which combined a charge with a chariot onto wardancers cleaning them up. Over running put them in range of the archer on hill unit which was destroyed by a charging chariot. The herd was hit by the Lord who challenged the Wargor and nailed him good. Second round of combat saw him beat the rest of the herd, but he was cleaned up by a nasty little spawn :)
I made a mistake and did not flee a herd when I should have, which meant the Khornegors had to survive an over running frontal charge by wardancers and dryads in the flank. Amazingly I did win combat as the Beastlord was on the corner and his magic weapon whipped the Dryads ward save away. I won combat but the dryads held, wardancers fled and kept on fleeing. The other spawn rear charged the dryads and another round ensued, where they again survived with two remaining. The third combat saw them toasted. The Khornegors went on to take out the unit of archers with banners, in combined charge with a lone Minotaur in the rear and chariot in the flank. His other dryad unit, waywatchers branchwraith and mage dealt with a couple of chariots and herds on my right flank.
10-10 draw.
In the end I finished 5th Overall and was pretty happy with the result, garnering a 3w -2d -1l ratio, which still keeps me at 50/50 for 7th ed using Beasts. Regarding the army as mentioned earlier I'd have preferred another unit of minos instead of the two chariots, and in the games the chariots were more of a hindrance then an asset. The reason being you need to keep the flee paths clear for when you do break as you don't want to cop a fleeing chariot in your own units. This hampers your movement on the table, which in WFB is costly as Movement is King. I'd have to drop something else to get the points as well, probably a dog unit as they're only handy for ambushing, and without the horn they're not likely to come up where you want. And sacrificing a ward save on your general just to get the horn so your ambushers get on more easily doesn't stack up in my books.
The changes to ambushing did hurt, the long drawn out line sucks. The move rather then march when returning to the field is also not much fun. Stacking your army with hard hitting units to compensate doesn't help comp scores either. And that will be something that players will have to mentally adjust for when marking peer comp scores.
Regarding the event, after having attended 8 GW GT's over the years in VIC, NSW and QLD I'd have to say that this was the best GW GT I had been to due to the venue, rules pack, staff and most importantly the consultation with the gaming community. GW HQ take note - this is how it should be done.