John Rainbow's Adventures - Short Tournament Report

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John Rainbow
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#121 Post by John Rainbow »

Thanks guys, when I finally finish it all I'll post up some nice pictures with someone else's camera!
Elessehta of Yvresse wrote:Ye gads, that's a goodly number of Maiden Guard, do you play them as Spears or Sea Guard?
They can fill in as both but in this list there's 28 LSG. I actually have enough to do two units of 30 with command, & the Everqueen of course!
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#122 Post by Malossar »

John Rainbow wrote:Thanks guys, when I finally finish it all I'll post up some nice pictures with someone else's camera!
Elessehta of Yvresse wrote:Ye gads, that's a goodly number of Maiden Guard, do you play them as Spears or Sea Guard?
They can fill in as both but in this list there's 28 LSG. I actually have enough to do two units of 30 with command, & the Everqueen of course!

Damn! I thought i had a lot with 35 and the everqueen!


Must get moar now...
Ptolemy wrote:Im not above whoring myself for a good cause. ;)
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#123 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Damn, sixty Maiden Guard, that's just unfair. I had enough trouble buying my thirteen + the Everqueen...
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
[quote="Narrin’Tim"]These may be the last days of the Asur, but if we are to leave this world let us do it as the heroes of old, sword raised against evil![/quote]
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#124 Post by John Rainbow »

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Spent a couple of hours finishing off a few things and now I'm off to NY for the tournament. The Big T-Dawg is masquerading as a lvl2 light mage this time around. The lions are units fillers for my WLs ($40+ for 10 is sooo expensive). Teclis has since had his base flocked and has also been varnished. Along with his pet cats.

I got all my maiden guard from 3 places: eBay, a friend who found a store being closed and they were in the back and I also got a bunch from Ceyl-Isha on this forum.
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#125 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

You're complaining about $40 for a box? $69 here ^_^
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
[quote="Narrin’Tim"]These may be the last days of the Asur, but if we are to leave this world let us do it as the heroes of old, sword raised against evil![/quote]
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - Crossroads GT Results UPDATED

#126 Post by John Rainbow »

Crossroads GT
Last weekend I attended the Crossroads GT in Horseheads, NY. It was my first ever GT and I have to say, I had a great time. It was pretty competitive but everyone I met and played against was a friendly and fun person. In all, there were just over 90 players in attendance. The only army not represented was Brets as the lone player dropped out last minute.

The list I took was as follows:
Prince Alithir on Star Dragon + GW, AoC, Vambraces, Talis. Loec
Casyin, Noble BSB on eagle + S.Might, DA, shield, Helm Fortune
Eiltia, Level 2 Light Mage + Annulian
Fenrier, Level 2 Light Mage + Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon

28 Seaguard + command, shields, BoEF
21 Archers + mus

25 WLs + command, Am.Light, +1 Movement Banner
7 SMs + command, Skeinsliver, Gleaming Pennant

2 x GE
Here's a semi-decent shot of the army on my display board:
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Summary of Games
Onto the games! In total there were 5 different scenarios played. Most used the battleline as a starting point but had some form of objectives or bonuses included. All of the games were (meant to be) open lists.

Game 1 v. Ogre Kingdoms
For round 1 I was paired with the Ogres of Kyle Holman (the Shambling Horde group). He was a great opponent to play against and fielded:

Tyrant + Sword of Striking, A.Destiny, Dragonbane Gem, Giantbreaker
Slaughtermaster + scroll
Firebelly + Greedy Fist, Pot.Speed
Bruiser BSB + Thiefstone, Ironcurse

8 Ogres + CMS
8 Ironguts + CMS , SoDiscipline
10 Gnoblar Trappers

4 Mournfang + CSM, Dragonhide Banner
2 x Sabretusk

Giant
Ironblaster

A shot of this army (the halfling cook is the slaughtermaster):
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Whilst I wasn't thrilled to be facing Ogres straight up the list did contain only one Ironblaster which was better than facing the usual two of them. The mission gave bonuses for taking out a single target from three of the different army choices i.e core, special, rare, etc but was otherwise a straight up game. Deployment looked something like this:
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I started the game with a failure to get the first turn (with a +2) and the Ogres moved up en masse. The magic phase was uneventful but the only shooting was the Ogre cannon which proceeded to knock Prince Alithir off his mount and do a few wounds to the dragon to boot. Not an auspicious start. With the loss of my general so early on I had to change my plans. The dragon charged the Gnoblars who were blocking the Ogres whlist my Lions charged the Mournfang which were in front of them to avoid being charged themselves. They would need a 6" on the overrun to reach the Ironguts if they routed the Mournfang in CC - highly likely. As expected, the WL made short work of the Ogre cavalry but then proceeded to fail their overrun with a miserable 5". This left them exposed and the Ogre countercharge blew them to bits with a huge number of impact hits and reduced my CC effectiveness severely. This effectively ended my game.

Here's the image of the dragon in CC with the Gnoblars and the WLs high and dry in no-man's land having failed to reach their intended targets :(
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Game 2 v. High Elves
For round two I drew the other High Elf Star Dragon list at the event which was played by Jon Vanase of Unplugged Gamers. In fact this was a StarCoven and the list was as follows:

Prince on Star Dragon + S.Might, Enchanted.Sh, Vambraces, Other Shard
Noble BSB + AoC, Dawnstone, GW
Lvl.2 Mage [Light] + Seerstaff
Lvl.2 Mage [Light]
Lvl.1 Mage [Light] + Scroll

30 LSG + CMS
18 Archers + CMS

18 Sword Masters + CMS, BoS, Skeinsliver
Lion Chariot

RBT

A shot of his army which was really well painted:
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This was an interesting and possibly underpowered list - aside from the dragon, as Banishment was only Str.6 and there were no eagles - Jon didn't own any to play with! Nevertheless, there were some things to concern me! My only real answer to the dragon would be my own dragon or my WLs, both of which would suffer heavily in a CC phase with the monster. The scenario to be played gave bonus VPs for Blood & Glory type objectives but if you broke, that didn't end the game.

My game plan was to pressure my opponents backfield and then think about dealing with the dragon later. I didn't think I would be able to corner it and get a charge off based on it's mobility so I thought it best to try and get some points elsewhere first. Luckily I won the dice off for the first turn and took it. Shooting and magic concentrated on the Lion Chariot and took it down pretty quickly.

The following image shows the state of play at the end of T2 maybe? My dragon is threatening his SMs (who have been Netted - the best spell in Lore of Light!) and my WLs have moved right up into his face after being time-warped. I think the charge was too far to declare but I needed to get out of the way of his SMs. In the match up of HE v HE, SMs are king as they have all the extra attacks. They beat WL every time due to the WS6 and A2. My SMs are milling around as they needed to avoid his dragon for a turn but you'll notice my BSB is in his backfield messing around with one of his mage bunkers - in this case a unit of archers. I moved my eagle up next turn to prevent his dragon from charging my BSB.
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We ended up having a dragon-off in T5! I had charged Jons SMs whilst my WL had routed his LSG but been crushed in return by his Prince and return attacks. ASF v ASF really sucks for WLs as it removes a huge advantage they have in striking before other troops get to hurt them. Jon declared a challenge with his Prince which I accepted. Caledorian High Elves are chivalrous and proud after all! Jon rolled first and after the blows fell, Alithir slumped from his saddle (for a second time) but not before using Loec to put 4W on his dragon. I had justified this as with my WL gone, I had little that could kill the dragon on the field, however, with rank bonuses, etc I could potentially kill the Prince if I needed too. In the end, combat was very close and I held with maybe a -1Ld modifier.

As T6 started, my SMs, who had previously been idling on my right flank declared on the flank of Jon's SM unit and made it into the fray. The extra combat res this generated for me with the dragons still in the challenge led to Jon needing a 5 (with his BSB already dead) to stay in CC. He failed and I ran down the dragon and SMs to earn a crushing victory.

Game 3 v. High Elves
The final game of the day was an objective based scenario (pick up and carry off board) which would be great for my mobile list! Unfortunately I drew High Elves again and this time a real Coven of Light...

My opponent was also an experienced general - Travis Weyforth - who some of you might recognize from the USA ETC team. His list was:

Archmage [Light] + Crystal, Loremasters Cloak
Lvl.2 Mage [Light] + Seerstaff
Lvl.1 Mage [Light] + Ring Corin, Am.Light
Lvl.1 Mage [Light] + Scroll, Other Shard
Noble BSB + GW, Dragon Armour, BoSorcery

26 Spearmen + CMS, SoDiscipline
3 x 10 Archers + M

2 x 27 WLs + M
2 x Great Eagle

So there were some unconventional setups for the mages - the Other Shard in particular - but in all this list was pretty scary for me. Two Banishments could be very bad for me! But, as before, ASF v ASF would potentially work in my favour here and negate some of the effectiveness of his WL blocks. Travis was using Mantic minis and a shot of his army is below:
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In deployment we both refused each other and I had my three objectives laid out in front of me. I wanted to be as far away from his mages as possible such that Banishment would need to be boosted to affect my Prince/Dragon.
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After a couple of turns I was happily carrying objectives off the board using my eagles and BSB whilst slowly moving up to engage his units. My dragon did take a full strength Banishment to the face and took 4W while Alithir took 2W. I had either dispelled or scrolled the other attempts on my Prince's life.

What you can see in the image is the army staying far from his troops and me trying to win on objectives - I didn't really want to be taking on WLs or the Coven. At the top of the image the Prince, who was visible anywhere on the board - made to threaten his mage bunker, in this case the spear unit. All the Coven are now in the forest having run out of the spear block after this move. Travis' WLs have been whittled down with flaming breath.

In the next turn I declared on his archmage who elected to flee and then redirected into another mage who also fled. This left the dragon to be charged by the spears and WLs but his characters were dangerously close to the board edge. In Travis' next turn, they both fled the board and my bold gambit paid off! Unfortunately this move cost me my Star Dragon but Alithir held in CC against the spears and killed the WLs over the rest of the game. In the end this was an average victory for me.

Game 4 v. Empire
I opened day two of the tournament against an Empire player with two cannon, a Helblaster and the Stank. Lucky me! The objective of the game was to hold objectives in the midfield by having the most number of wounds closest to them. My opponent, Garrett did not have a list for me but did try to describe what he had. He also did not have a list himself which would be a problem counting the score later on...

Roughly, he took:
Archlector + Cloak.Ulric,
Lvl.4 Mage [Life] + 4++, scroll
BSB + GW
Witchhunter + Magic Carpet
Engineer
Warrior Priest + steed

40 Spearmen + CMS (character bunker)
10 Free Company
10 Hand Gunners
5 Outriders

3 Demigryphs
10 IC Knights + CMS, Razor Standard

2 Cannon
Helblaster
Steam Tank

Image

An in progress pic:
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I had got the first turn and taken out his Helblaster and a single cannon. The dragon dealt with the IC knights and the WLs killed the stank over two rounds of CC before seeing off the Demigryphs as well. I was in prime position and all he had left were the spears, Lector, BSB and mage. This mage then went on the IF dwellers on me twice (after already getting it on my LSG on T4 without IF and me failing to dispel) and both destroying my LSG, Archers and both mages. This turned a mighty victory for the High Elves into a feeble one by the end of T6.

As mentioned, counting scores was difficult without either an army list or an Empire rulebook to hand. So I'm not sure where all the numbers actually came from.

Game 5 v Skaven
I hadn't played Skaven for a year and have only played them three times now (inc. this game) so I was pretty stoked to play them again. I had really wanted to play O&G as I have never faced them but it wasn't to be. The last game of the tourny was a straight up battleline with a couple of simple bonuses for getting a rear charge, etc.

My opponent 'Big Al' was running the following:

Warlord + Sword.Anti-Heroes, Dragonhelm, 5++
Grey Seer + 3 tokens, scroll
BSB
Plague Priest on Plague Furnace + 4++, Ironcurse
Engineer + Doomrocket

24 Clanrats + CMS
Poison Wind Globes
24 Clanrats + CMS
Poison Wind Globes
3 x 40 Slaves
2 x Giant Rats

35 Plague Monks + CMS, Plague Banner
6 Gutter Runners

Abom.
Doom Wheel
2 x Warp Lightning Cannon

His army in its cage!
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Deployment:
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Needless to say I was facing a huge amount of troops and some nasties in there too. Fortunately, the building in the center of the map kept him honest and I had most of his army pinned in place by my WLs with my dragon busy chomping on diseased rats and the plague furnace. That was until...

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This shot from T3 shows a big hole where the pinning unit of WLs used to be (next to the building). In total I got 13th'd irresistibly three times this game. The first two took out my WL unit and LSG unit in a single hit on each before the third decimated my archers. Game over pretty much. To add insult to injury, the Grey Seer also survived. It was a fun game but I had no impact on the end result. IF 13th sucks. Big time. Especially when your opponent rolls over 20 on four dice each time. The result, major defeat!

Overall Summary
I ended up going 3 and 2 which I was really happy with. I placed 37th overall which I was also pleased with - my minor victories against the Empire and High Elf Coven of Light had cost me quite a few battle points but hey, I had a great time. I really think I would have gone 4:1 if not for the 13th spell in my final game. I had my opponent where I wanted him and it was all going so well! I guess we all have tales of woe from time to time though.

My list performed pretty well although the preponderance of Empire and Ogre players at the big tournaments is a big problem when running the dragon list. There was little in the way of comp or rules changes (as in ETC) that help reduce the effectiveness of cannon or change the way terrain works. This really showed as I played 3 people with warmachines and each of them destroyed either the Dragon Prince as a whole or in parts. In fact, the Prince and Dragon did not make through a single game together - the Prince died in 4 of my games and the dragon in 3 of them.

I'm not sure where to go with the list from here. I had thought to add chariots instead of SMs but I am even considering ditching the Dragon completely due to the way it works in the competitive scene. Either way, I'm going to be taking a bit of a break from Fantasy for a while and play some 40K. My next modeling project will be the Secret Santa I'm doing on this site. Obviously there won't be any pics posted but I'll keep updating as I go along. I have all the bits I need now to get started some time next week - I have a load to do at work for a while which will keep me busy and this is part of the reason this was a somewhat brief summary.

As ever, thanks for reading and suggestions/questions/comments would be awesome!

A bit extra...

The Other High Elves at the GT
In total, there were 6 HE players at the event including myself and I played two of them! The others were combined arms lists which each ran a Shadow Archmage IIRC.

Here's Ptolemy's army with its massive display board which really was huge! I guess he might do a write up here on Ulthuan sometime soon too.
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A guy called Justin took some purple Elves too and focused on two big blocks of SMs and WLs:
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The highest ranked HE player was Jeff Eagan who ran a Shadow Archmage and Prince with the White Sword and Loec - an interesting combo that over the course of the tourny took out Chaos Lords and Ghoul Kings alike. His army included a unit of each of the 'Elite Warrior' choices and was also nicely painted.
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Other GT Stuff
The 'Best General' at the event went to a guy called Rob Kopp who ran Dark Elves. He took a Lord on Dragon and a Hero on Manticore - I think with the miscast ring - accompanied by chariots and Dark Riders. I believe he also won at Adepticon this year and probably some others. The overall winner was a Vamps player though who finished as the second place general but had a better paint score.

The army that won the 'Players Choice Award' - Slayer Style Ogres. These are in fact the models of the Ogre player from my local group who I have documented games against here in this blog! Yes they are just as awesome close up!
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - Crossroads GT Results 10/1/12

#127 Post by Jimmy »

Awesome report so far and some well presented armies. That TK player on the next table over in game 2 looked like a very interesting colour scheme!
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - Crossroads GT Results 10/1/12

#128 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Nice work with the pics John, and it looks like you had fun.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
[quote="Narrin’Tim"]These may be the last days of the Asur, but if we are to leave this world let us do it as the heroes of old, sword raised against evil![/quote]
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - Crossroads GT Results 10/1/12

#129 Post by FrankHunter »

Hi! Great job with the tournament and the report.
If I may give you an advice, don't give up on the dragon yet! It is true that he suffers from the WM preponderance, but consider that you have several ways to mitigate that.
You could take a smaller version of the Coven: two S7 banishment and two Nets will take care of any wm around.
Or, if you do not feel taking the Coven, you could just take 4 eagles, some ellyrian reavers, and try to take out the WM in combat in the first turns. This second option could be the best for you, cause you just need to add another two eagles and switch the SM with reavers.
Of course, both things need for you to hide the dragon, but any serious torunament should have at least one building/hill on each side of the table to mitigate the power of WM.
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - Crossroads GT Results 10/1/12

#130 Post by Teledor »

Great pics John. Sounds like it was a blast. Jealous a bit. I need to paint my army and start looking for these things coming up in the future.
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - Crossroads GT Results 10/1/12

#131 Post by John Rainbow »

Thanks for the comments everyone!

After having some more time to ruminate on the GT results and my own performance I think there are still some things for myself to work on as a player besides the general list. I made a few mistakes in the tournament due to my relative inexperience compared to some of the other tournament players (I have a single year playing WFB). In particular I made a lot of mistakes with charging and declaring charges too early in the game. I made a couple of moves that opponents could flee from and leave me stranded - luckily I was never caught on this though. I also had a few problems with my unit placement and not thinking far enough ahead. I often found myself being very aggressive with the dragon. All of my games finished with around an hour to spare (other than against the Skaven) as the nature of my play was so aggressive that T2 charges were the norm and the game was either won or lost very quickly. I think I need to work on my game plan and overall strategy more, I have the mobility to be able to play a longer game and wait for the opportune moment. I need to play more to the strengths of this list rather than hitting as hard and fast as possible. Playing with my army as a cohesive set is still an issue for me. I often have the dragon and WL in separate combats and need to consider the force working together more.

What this all comes down to is game time. Pure and simple. I have to get in a lot more games with my list against decent players. I plan on attending as many more tournies as possible whilst I try to improve my game, work allowing of course. To this end, I'm actually trying to arrange a mini 3-game event at a local store for later this fall. Perhaps I can defend my title (I won the last one of these with the dragon list) and at the least, I'll get in some decent game time. I'll be taking the dragon list with me of course.
Jimmy wrote:Awesome report so far and some well presented armies. That TK player on the next table over in game 2 looked like a very interesting colour scheme!
Yeah, one of the great parts of the tournament was playing against all-painted lists. It adds a huge amount to the game! The TK list was striking from afar with the red/blue/black scheme but wasn't done that well when you got up close. It certainly stood out at a distance though and looked fairly decent at table top length.
FrankHunter wrote:Hi! Great job with the tournament and the report.
If I may give you an advice, don't give up on the dragon yet! It is true that he suffers from the WM preponderance, but consider that you have several ways to mitigate that.
You could take a smaller version of the Coven: two S7 banishment and two Nets will take care of any wm around.
Or, if you do not feel taking the Coven, you could just take 4 eagles, some ellyrian reavers, and try to take out the WM in combat in the first turns. This second option could be the best for you, cause you just need to add another two eagles and switch the SM with reavers.
Of course, both things need for you to hide the dragon, but any serious torunament should have at least one building/hill on each side of the table to mitigate the power of WM.
I'm not giving up on the dragon! It's a powerful build and it works really well. I just meant that I've played a lot of games with it recently and want to try something different for a while - maybe something a bit more fluffy as some of the gamers in my area aren't too competitive and I want to have a few games for fun rather than anything else whilst trying a few different things out i.e. getting to know chariots, units that I've never used before.

I don't like the idea of the Star Coven, especially after having played against it in the tourny. It sacrifices too much power elsewhere for not a whole lot in return. I'm still hooked on the chariots idea so I'll be trying that after a bit of a break from the list-optimisation type games. I'm also not sure I really need the extra eagles. I would like some more combat punch and quick units, hence the chariots. Similarly, I don't think Reavers add that much to the list in terms of extra usage for cost. Bear in mind that the points for these units have to come either from my current specials or my character choices - I don't really want to sacrifice either if possible (other than the SMs)!
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#132 Post by John Rainbow »

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So this morning before work I got up and painted some boards. I textured them last night with sand so all that's left is to do one (or maybe two) drybrush coats to highlight them a bit. I've gone for 'green & grassy' as my board theme as it fits with my army and also my idea of Ulthuan - lots of grassy plains with mountains in the background. I don't intent to flock them or use static grass or anything btw. Finally I'll have a table worthy of my army! BTW this was super easy to do. My table consists of 4 x 4ft x 2ft plywood boards, 2 collapsible saw horses and 2 x 8ft 2x4s to rest the boards on. All of this plus the sand and paint came from Home Depot for around $100. Pretty sweet as the whole thing comes apart for easy storage and transportation.

I already have quite a bit of terrain (painted already) but I will be making a few hills in the coming weeks and maybe the odd wood too as these are the things I'm lacking. I'm also planning on getting some more of my old 40k terrain when I go back home around Christmas time. Speaking of 40k, I have been listening to some pretty good podcasts recently while doing housework/in the gym, so far I've listened to quite a few of the ones by the Heroic28s. They're pretty fun to listen too and have some good advice if nothing ground breaking in them. I suggest if you have vanilla marines, BA or 'Nids that you check them out (these are the only armies they've currently reviewed for 6th).
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#133 Post by John Rainbow »

Ok so a bit of a hiatus from me recently and probably for the near future. PhD work is trying (and succeeding) to take over my life. I haven't had chance to play or paint since the tournament I attended at the end of September but I have started trying to arrange a small tournament at a local store in Harrisburg. I posted the details about it here before, the link is below. So far I have a single fellow Ulthuan-ite who has shown some interest. Anyone else please message me or reply to the post!

2500pt WFB Mini-Tournament in Harrisburg, PA
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#134 Post by John Rainbow »

Work still sucks! In my free time I've been working on some 40k stuff for my Blood Angels. In particular I decided I wanted to make my own Storm Raven. It's based off an idea I saw elsewhere on the net (Cain's BA Blog maybe? - credit where credit is due!) which uses a Terminator Salvation Hunter Killer model as the base for building off of. The rest of it so far is made up of drop pod bits. I still have long way to go with making some more armour plates from plasticard and green stuffing it to smooth all the roughly chopped bits over but the basic shape is there. What do you guys think so far? I'll keep updating as I get further.

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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#135 Post by Jimmy »

That BA SR sounds interesting. Shame on life getting in the way of our toy soldiers but it tends to happen! :roll:
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#136 Post by John Rainbow »

So I have actually been playing some games recently but haven't had chance to post anything about it recently, certainly not in terms of BatReps or anything of that sort. So, what's been going on recently for me...

WARHAMMER FANTASY
I am still using the same Dragon list that I took to the Crossroads GT, there have been no additions or subtractions at all simply as I haven't had a huge amount of free time to put stuff together as I've been trying to get into 40k and get some Fantasy games in too. I have played Lizards, WoC and Ogres in the past couple of weeks and the results are a mixed bag. I think my local meta is getting wise to the Star Dragon...

To start with I kicked some ass against Light Slann lizards but then got it handed to me by WoC and the Hellcannon in particular. At one point I did get my hopes up after the Hellcannon misfired but it rolled the 'direct hit, everything under takes Str.10' result on the misfire chart and that was pretty much game over. This was also after I failed 4 out of 4 initiative tests from being hit with the Penumbral Pendulum and losing my BSB and an Eagle on the 1st turn of the game. Yes I rolled that many 6's.

Following these games I again played Lizards (Shadow Slann this time) and eked out a narrow victory after my opponent rolled poorly for his magic phase. I then managed to snatch a minor loss from the jaws of a major loss against Ogres. So, all in all a balanced week but an unhappy one as I thought I could have done better - especially against WoC. That damn Hellcannon! I would also add that the new Skullcrushers or whatever they are called (Khorne Knights on Juggers) are actually pretty terrifying and nice models to boot.

I am also signing up for Adepticon and will be doing the main Fantasy Championship and the Team event. I have a buddy who plays Lizards so we plan on teaming up for the two-player stuff. It should be fun, especially as we are both 'Forces of Order' so don't have any of those silly ally rules problems that HE/Chaos teams or whatever have.

40K
So my initial enthusiasm for 6th ed. 40k has been tempered by getting my butt kicked from here to Timbuktu by ****ing Tyranids. I'm a relative newbie to (this and the last ed. of) 40k so playing a pretty cheesy 'Nidzilla list (Swarmlord + 3 Tervigons all with Biomancy and usually Str.9 & T9, IWND & FNP) is proving to be a pretty big turn off for me in playing any 40k. I have never played using Teclis but I imagine this is what it feels like being on the receiving end of an ass-kicking you can do nothing about, made all the more painful by the fact that your opponent knows all the rules and you're still trying to get into the game. It's also one of the few regular 40k games I can get round here though...

TOURNAMENT ORGANISATION
As some of you might be aware I am hosting a small tournament next weekend for some local players and a couple of others. I've been spending much of my free time getting all the details surrounding this resolved and am pretty much done now. It's a 3 game event, 2500pts with some comp on overpowered characters and items (Teclis, Puppet, etc). The scenarios I went for are as follows:

1. The Iron Throne
Taking some inspiration from 'Game of Thrones' the firsts scenario has an objective in the board center (the Iron Throne) which must be captured. Control of the throne casts a randomly generated spell from the BRB unless you roll a '1' and have therefore 'Sat on a stabby bit' of the throne and lose a wound.

2. Modified Blood & Glory
The second game uses the Blood & Glory rules to generate bonus points for the mission but you don't auto-fail or any of that kind of thing if you get broken.

3. Rescue the Messenger
Each side has three objectives that must be collected and then carried off the board (taken from Crossroads GT 2012).

If anyone wants any more information on any of these I can post up some stuff or send the rules packet if you're interested. If people are also interested in attending I might also be able to figure something out. FYI the tournament is in Harrisburg, PA.

HOBBY
Work is going pretty well on my Secret Santa stuff. I'm nearly done actually so just a few more hours of painting and I should be good to get the stuff in the mail before the end of the month. Unfortunately my Secret Santa effort has been just about my only painting effort in recent weeks.
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#137 Post by John Rainbow »

Some objectives I've been working on for the tournament this weekend, I'm still debating what design to put on the shields:

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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#138 Post by Mireadur »

wow now thats a nice tourney with so many players devoted to painting =).

I also like the markers (hehe who cares about them after those amazing army pics up there :P)
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#139 Post by Elithmar »

I've finally read your reports from the GT, and I have to say well done. Not just on your place but also nicely painted army. Some really nice armies there. Some of the Skaven player's ideas just made me laugh! ;)

It's a shame when you lose because of the spells like Dwellers and 13th. In a 1.5k game once I lost my archer bunker, my mage and prince to 13th. #-o

Good luck with the Secret Santa, and I hope you keep reporting with High Elves. I like your list. MSU swords and no archmage, not to mention the star dragon, make for a very interesting list.
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#140 Post by John Rainbow »

ADVENTURERS GUILD TOURNAMENT REPORT
The mini-tournament I was organising went really well last weekend. I had a pretty decent turnout with 14 players in attendance and a decent variety in armies. There were three Demons players and two of each: HE, WoC & Ogres at the event along with Brets, Lizards, TK, Vamps and DE. Every player was really friendly too which was great. All three scenarios I had sorted out seemed to work out pretty well and there weren’t too many rules issues. All in all, I was pretty happy with everything from a rules perspective.

THE GAMES
I took my Crossroads GT Star Dragon list as I hadn’t really had time to paint up anything new and there was some minimal paint scoring - mainly included to encourage painted armies. Unfortunately there aren’t too many pictures here although I hope you like my diagrams! Certainly quicker than Battle Chronicler!

My list was:
Prince Alithir on Stardragon + GW, AoC, Vambraces, Talis. Loec
Casyin, Noble BSB on eagle + S.Might, DA, shield, Helm Fortune
Eiltia, Level 2 Light Mage + Annulian
Fenrier, Level 2 Light Mage + Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon

28 Seaguard + command, shields, BoEF
21 Archers + mus

25 WLs + command, Am.Light, +1 Movement Banner
7 SMs + command, Skeinsliver, Gleaming Pennant

2 x GE
Round 1 v. High Elves
Internecine warfare ensued in round 1 as I was matched up with the other HE player at the tournament. Roughly speaking he was running:

Archmage (Metal) + robes & talisman
Level 2 (Shadow) + crystal
BSB + AoC, 5++

40 ish spears + command
14 Archers + command

28 SMs + command
28 WLs + command, BoS

2 x RBT
2 x Eagle

This wasn’t a particularly unusual list then but there were some odd choices like Metal as the main lore and command for the archers.

In terms of the game, there was a single objective to capture in the center of the board which gave magical bonuses to whomever held it. Holding it with your general was worth a bonus 400VPs at the end of the game. The game started well for with my Dragon ending up in combat with his spear block which also contained his BSB and Archmage. Over several turns I eventually chewed them up before moving back to claim the central objective. My opponent had placed his RBTS pretty well and covered most of the field. This lead to my Dragon and Eagle BSB cowering behind terrain a lot of the time and hampered my manoeuvrability somewhat.

IN THE BATTLE OF HIGH ELVES v. HIGH ELVES, THE SWORD MASTER IS KING something we all knew but really reinforced in this game! My 7 SMs took out his block of 28(ish) WLs including mage and his surviving SMs - 14 after much bowfire wiped out both my archers and LSG as they played havoc with my backfield. Having WS6, wounding on 2’s and multiple attacks means these guys are brutal against other units with ASF (generally other HE). The usefulness of WL is completely negated by SMs in this instance as they still wound on 2s and the ‘to hit’ on a 3+ makes them into a HE lawn mower.

Round 2 v Ogres
Game 2 was a modified Blood & Glory type situation without the silly ‘GAME OVER’ when you break - there were just bonus battle points instead. I was playing an Ogre list with something like...

Slaughtermaster (4) [Heavens], Fencers Blades, Glittering Scales
Butcher (1) [Maw]
BSB

8 Ironguts + Discipline Banner
8 Ogres

5 Maneaters + pistols, scout, poison
6 Maneaters + Dragon Banner, pistols, poison, swiftstride
3 Cats

Thundertusk

A tough list due to the Thundertusk giving out ASF like candy to everyone within 6” but nice as there were no Iron Blasters (anti-dragon rifles). After both T1s the battlefield looked something like this...
Image
I had strongly refused my right by deploying the LSG pretty close to the board edge and used the Tower to help protect my left flank with the WLs. As you can see though, the Ogres were advancing and the Thundertusk was in the center - one elephant that really messes up HE!

In order to deal with this I declared my Prince against the Thundertusk assuming (correctly) that even with ASL, I would be able to finish it off in a single round of CC and at least cause it to flee, if not destroy it and overrun. My opponent knew I would kill it so elected to flee and I instead put the Prince and dragon into the unit of Ogres, also containing the Butcher and BSB. My BSB also decided to join in the fight.

At the start of his T3 the board looked something like the diagram below:
Image
I have moved my WLs into the building to escape the Maneaters, am in CC with the Ogres and the SMs have successfully avoided the Ironguts. The lone eagle is left behind to protect the rear of my Prince/BSB. As you can see, the Maneaters and Ogres are about to get very unhappy! My shooting this game was pretty devastating and as Maneaters have no armour, I quickly reduced the unit on my right to zero, netting a decent number of VPs. On the left, my Prince and BSB made short work of the Ogres and I cut through his flank. My Eagle BSB charged the remaining Maneaters on the left to stop them fleeing (he would most likely catch them if they fled) and this allowed my WLs to leave the building and charge them in the rear. Predictably they died in short order whilst my Dragon finally got the Elephant in CC.

Unfortunately this plan cost me my firebase as the Archers and LSG had to be sacrificed to stop the Ironguts and his Slaughtermaster. I could then avoid them for the rest of the game though. He was broken well before this point and it was a massacre to the HE!

Round 3 v Demons
I haven’t had much experience in the past with Demons so I was excited to play them again. At this point I was also actually playing for first place - my two massacres had left me in good stead going into the final round.

His list was...

Unclean One (1) [Nurgle] + Trappings, Bleedy-toughness-test-thingy
Herald Tzeentch (3) [Life] + Loremaster
Herald Khorne + Sundering Banner
Herald Khorne on Jugger

450pts of Bloodletters
30(ish) Horrors + Command (including the stupid changeling)

5 Bloodcrushers

2 x 5 Harpies

I wasn’t sure what to think of this list as some of it is pretty vile to play against. The Banner of Sundering sucks when you’re running Light magic (and the rest of the time too, just more in this case!) and each unit had some resistance to the dragon. Bloodletters have KB to do a number on the Prince and the Unclean One gives out ASL and toughness tests like there’s no tomorrow. All bad news for me. Oh and don’t even get me started on the Changeling!

To start with, if you aren’t aware, the Changeling is the ‘champion’ of Pink Horror units. He has a frankly silly ability that allows him to swap his stats with his opponent. He can also pick which he wants to switch. Everyone should also check out the Demons FAQ regarding him. There’s a question something along the lines of... If the Changeling is in B2B with a model that has two or more profiles, can it pick and choose between them with it’s ability. Surprisingly someone at GW thought this was ok and said ‘Yes’. Cue Changelings with Dragon Str., T & attacks and Prince-like WS and I. Politely I would like to call ‘shenanigans’ on this one. Any opinions?

Anyway, onto the game! We were collecting objectives in this game and as my opponent went first, he moved his harpies to begin moving objectives to his table edge. This gave me an opportunity to charge and I took it. I intended to wipe the harpies and overrun into the flank of the Bloodletters. Unfortunately I failed my re-rollable fear check and still proceeded to fail in killing all of the five harpies :(. Obviously this was double bad luck and pretty much left me high and dry. If I’d have got this I think I would have won the game pretty much then and there. As it was, the harpies popped under demonic instability and I was left stranded as per the new ‘instability’ rules not allowing an overrun- yet another set of silly rules in the new FAQ.
Image

This left the Bloodletters free to charge my LSG and they took the chance. Even so I expected to do pretty well against them as I had whittled down their numbers somewhat and would still strike first. I then proceeded to wiff most of my attacks but held for a few rounds before collapsing - failing a few fear checks here and there. Obviously my magic was fairly non-existant this game due to the Sundering banner.
Image

The rest of the fame did not seem to go too well for me either. My WLs failed pretty much every (rerollable, Ld10) fear check they had to make and eventually failed a rerollable Ld10 terror check and were run down by the Unclean one. It’s pretty safe to say that Ld tests were my bane this game. I really think I would have won without my poor dice rolling - I could at least have salvaged a draw! As it was I managed to play out a minor defeat after the Changeling took out my dragon whilst I took out the unit of horrors and Herald of Tzeentch.

RESULTS
So overall 2-1 for me and a 3rd place finish for the Star Dragon list. I was pretty happy with this and got a pack of WLs for my prize! I could have finished higher with some better rolls in the final game but we’ve all got stories like that and I was pretty happy in the end to place in the trophies. All my games were a lot of fun so thanks to my opponents for playing and being awesome!

I keep saying I’m going to change my list up but then the dragon list comes up smelling of roses time and again! Having said this though, Adepticon is coming and it’s only 2400pts - a limit I’m unfamiliar with so it’s time to actually change for real and get playtesting something else!

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Mireadur wrote:wow now thats a nice tourney with so many players devoted to painting =).

I also like the markers (hehe who cares about them after those amazing army pics up there :P)
Elithmar of Lothern wrote:I've finally read your reports from the GT, and I have to say well done. Not just on your place but also nicely painted army. Some really nice armies there. Some of the Skaven player's ideas just made me laugh! ;)

It's a shame when you lose because of the spells like Dwellers and 13th. In a 1.5k game once I lost my archer bunker, my mage and prince to 13th. #-o

Good luck with the Secret Santa, and I hope you keep reporting with High Elves. I like your list. MSU swords and no archmage, not to mention the star dragon, make for a very interesting list.
Thanks guys! It's great to see some people reading the blog and liking what I'm doing. Hopefully this latest post is in the same vein. I'll try and get some more pictures up and when I start playing some more games at 2400pts I post up some more BatReps with Battle Chronicler. I'm working on getting some of the pictures from the tournament to put up at a later date. Unfortunately I was too busy organizing and stuff as well as playing to make any decent notes or take any pics!
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#141 Post by pk-ng »

<3 your diagrams!
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#142 Post by Jimmy »

Thanks for the update JR, that just sucks about the last game with Daemons!! :(
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#143 Post by Swordmaster of Hoeth »

John Rainbow wrote:IN THE BATTLE OF HIGH ELVES v. HIGH ELVES, THE SWORD MASTER IS KING
Thank you, my friend, thank you! You are really too kind. :mrgreen:

On a serious not I do like the diagrams, they are super cool! Also the indicators such as shooting arrows are really great!

Just one question about SM's winning against WL's. Since Lions would hit with their full attacks anyway (as we all strike simultaneously) what was their formation when fighting SM's and was is just a frontal assault or SM's started from the flank charge?

Thanks for the reports!
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#144 Post by Elithmar »

I did the Maths for Phoenix Guard vs Sword Masters one time and I think Phoenix Guard should actually win. I don't know, it sounds wrong now. :?

Nice work on coming 3rd. Shame about the bad rolls in game 3, but two massacres is still very good! :D Just wondering, where was your eagle in the third game?

You could go for moon or even sun dragon at 2.4k if you're a stubborn Caledorian. Oh and I expect more white lions in your lists in future with those new lions. :lol:

Great stuff - keep it up.
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#145 Post by John Rainbow »

I've been writing a small High Elf Item Guide link here:Click Me!.It will be completed with the Common Magic Items and a few other bits and bobs at a a later date.

I also had a few questions about ASF/ASL interactions with various things and trawled the forum for some answers, that post is here in case anyone ever needs to look at the same things: Click Me!.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Swordmaster of Hoeth wrote:Just one question about SM's winning against WL's. Since Lions would hit with their full attacks anyway (as we all strike simultaneously) what was their formation when fighting SM's and was is just a frontal assault or SM's started from the flank charge?
In all cases they were frontal assaults. IIRC all the units were also 7 wide (other than my LSG who were running 6 wide). This meant his horde of SMs got 22 attacks whilst mine got 15. His WL also got 15. The big difference though is that the SM usually hit everything on 3's whilst they get hit on 4's. For a single rank of attacks, against Elves, a unit of 7 SMs would do roughly 8 wounds. A unit of WL would do 6 wounds. I may have also used Pha's Protection in one of these situations but I'm not sure.
Elithmar of Lothern wrote:Just wondering, where was your eagle in the third game?
Probably dead or out of the picture. We had to pick up objectives and carry them away. Obviously the Eagle has a huge advantage in this so I imagine he got downed pretty on the left flank. My right flank eagle actually managed to carry an objective to safety - me and my opponent tied on these bonus points. I got hit with a fair few Tzeentch style magic missiles in the game. There was a fairly hideous 2d6 hits and d6+4 Str. one that did a bit of a number on my dragon early in the game and reduced it's fighting strength significantly - this always sucks as it changes how you can use him as you can't really afford to suffer more wounds.
Elithmar of Lothern wrote:You could go for moon or even sun dragon at 2.4k if you're a stubborn Caledorian. Oh and I expect more white lions in your lists in future with those new lions. :lol:
There will definitely be White Lions! As for the dragon, I'm not that stubborn! My journey with the army of Caledor thus far has been epic but I don't think the Moon Dragon will quite cut it going forward - especially when people will be taking Teclis, etc against me. Don't get me started on using a Sun Dragon as a Prince mount! :D
Great stuff - keep it up.
It's great to have people read my stuff and make comments so thanks to all of you. I'm hoping to get a more in-depth BatRep done if I have a game this week (highly likely) with a new 2400pt list. Watch this space!
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#146 Post by John Rainbow »

Should Banishment be Str.7 or 8? any thoughts or a link to another blog discussing this elsewhere?
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#147 Post by Elithmar »

I don't really understand the question. Surely if you have 4 other light mages, or whatever number it is, it will become s8?
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#148 Post by Elithmar »

I apologise for my earlier statement that Phoenix Guard beat Sword Masters. I did the Maths again, and:

Sword Masters>Phoenix Guard>White Lions.

So yes, Sword Masters are always at the top of the food chain.
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#149 Post by John Rainbow »

I guess I should expand on my comment a little: if you're running the coven, is Str.7 Banishment good enough or should you be looking to get to Str.8? I'm leaning towards taking Str.7 at the moment but wasn't sure if anyone had tried running a Str.8 Coven and had any experience with it that they could pass on?

Did Brewmaster discuss this issue in his blog?
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Re: John Rainbow's Adventures - 2500pt Army Blog

#150 Post by Elithmar »

Probably not worth the extra points. Unless you face a lot of sphinxes that is, but I think a few S7 wounds should wear them down sufficiently. How many things are T9 or 10 anyway?
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