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Screw City GT Chicago (List thoughts, reports and pictures)

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 3:27 pm
by Hortennse
Hi all,
I just got back from the Screw City Grand Tournament in the Chicago area. I've been a bit tired from the long drive to and from (I live in Northern Michigan and it was a family trip for us, complete with a blown tire on the way home), so I'm sorry ahead of time that I don't remember all the details well enough to give my usual turn-by turn analysis, but I will try my best to keep things chronological.
Here's the website complete with tournament results as of yesterday:

http://www.iwfb.net/screwcitygt.html

Closed List Tournament by the way

The rest of this first post, my list building thoughts, were all written up before going to the tournament, so please forgive any times I end up eating my words in the battle reports.

I took a historically large amount of characters in this army, in fact this army is technically illegal because I used a "free hero" provided by tournament comp to actually put my heroes over 750 points. The list totally depends on Teclis and magic, and in case Teclis dies I want enough mages left alive to keep my magic going. This leads to an exorbant point cost, but at least I can partially justify it with how awesome the double-dispell scroll combo should work and how amazingly High Elves can ignore the Forbidden Rod's side effects. Still, high elf mages are very fragile not to mention Teclis, so I need to make a durable front line of characters to "plug" my first rank so that nothing can touch the mages. Usually only ogres pull off this tactic because they only need three troops in front and command provides 2 of them (actually three, but the champion can die), but through sheer expenditure I can do this with my high elf army to protect Teclis and his entourage, and I hope to even justify this expence through hexes and augments, especially Savage Beast of Horros. "Durable" and "High Elf foot characters" is usually an oxymoron, so I would need to commit to High Magic with my two support mages in order to boost their ward saves to a 3+ and hopefully shield their squishy friends. I am going to be hugely outnumbered in every game I play, so my magic phases will have to go according to a strict plan, and I will need to spread out my units wide if necessary to minimize losses to war machines or spell templates. I plan on making some thin (5 by 1) magnetized trays in order to make this a quicker and more tolerable thing to put my opponents through when I reform before combat... but it's just far too few troops to lose a a full regiment of them to a Salamander template and have any chance at winning the game.


LORDS
Thulius (Teclis)- (By my fluff the real Teclis is still the guy from the old book, so I've given the weaker new version the name of a character my brother used for years when we played against eachother at home).
Thulius is the most powerful mage in the Old World, and second only to Teclis and Belanaar on Ulthuan. He was crippled years ago when he saved the gates of Anlec from the Dark Elves when he undertook a mighty ritual to barrage the battlefield with a storm of Comets. For his bravery he was awarded a Staff of Lileath which augments his strength until its powers are exausted.
I expect most high elf players to take the Everqueen when Special Characters are allowed, but I really think Teclis is still better, even with the extra 100 point price tag. For how amazing the Everqueen is, she really doesn't add much to your casting in fact she's worse than a Book of Hoeth Archmage without her special BSB banner. Once you get that things change, but remember it only works on augments on a single unit of yours, so your opponent can still focus on trying to just dispell the spells of yours that are not augments. Teclis has lost a lot of brute force in his casting, he's more of a 1-phase wonder than he used to be, but that one phase can win the game if you choose the right phase to boost. Here are the greatest bonuses Teclis brings to my army:
1. He gives me access to two dispell scrolls (with my backup mage). This is very rare in 8th edition and a huge advantage for me, since by packing so many points into a character bus, I am the perfect opponent for someone who rolls Dwellers Below. Teclis gives me a 50% chance of removing the spell completely, and even if it fails, dispelling it twice should be enough for me to survive into the combat phases where Dwellers can't touch me.
2. He gives me the exact 8 spells I think I am most likely to need. I think augments and hexes really benefit a High Elf player, since we are stuck with 25% of our army at strength 3 since all our core is strength 3. Going for super spells such as Dwellers, Mindrazor and such is tempting, but I would rather go for the cheaper augments that allow me to cast several spells per turn and avoid miscasts by throwing fewer dice at each. Purple Sun is the exception, if you have ever run into an Ogre Gutstar you have wished you had this spell. Savage Beast of Horros should be especially deadly with all the characters in this unit. Spell selection is the one area I feel Teclis got better (I prefer his across the lores selection to his old boring loremaster), but I must admit that in all other areas he got worse. But any fool knows he was overpowered and had to go, and now with Rumination Slanns gone his relative magical power just went way up. I would only consider the Dark Elf magic phase better at this point in the game.
3. Banner of the World Dragon, a free reroll each game (tournament rule) in case he fails a Look Out Sir roll, a stubborn bunker unit, and tons of characters to plug up the front rank means that Teclis should be practically the last model I lose in my army. I have paid a mighty price for this, almost half of my army points are spent on characters (unreal for 8th edition rules which generally discourage this), but with all these augments and hexes on their side they should protect Teclis very well and be quite deadly also.

Cyrus the Grey (Alith Anar)-
Cyrus is Damien's father and the lord of the re-inhabited Old World Elf colony of Dal Quain. His goal is to reverse the High Elves' decline by sparking a new rate of expansion for the race.
250 points is barely more expensive than a normal foot prince. For the price, Alith Anar is an awesome character now, giving two awesome bonuses to his unit and wielding a great bow, but he has one downside, hand to hand combat specifically the damage side. This guy's got a hand weapon, that's it. Fortunately Teclis has four different spells that can contribute to him dealing more damage in spite of this. Swiftstride will be mostly for pursuing, since I doubt I would ever want to miss a turn of shooting/stand and shoot with his bow and the Reaver bow as well.

Heroes (finally some regular characters!)

Daria - Level 2 mage of High Magic, Dispell Scroll
Daria is a wood elf, the spellsinger of a nearby wood elf village who has ventured to Dal Quain to learn more potent magics to defend her people from the various threats of the region. Damien saved her village from a Slann corrupted by death magic.
Usually a far more prominent character in my lists, Daria is a scroll caddy this game. As I said before, the Dwellers Below could totally spoil my plan, and while I would prefer to get lucky and not run into a Dwellers opponent, I can't count on that so having two different dispell scrolls is my best chance to beat that threat. Daria serves a couple other purposes though, hopefully rolling Apotheosis for another heal for my characters (between her and the other mage I have a good chance), and buffing my characters' ward saves up to a 3+. I normally take Khaine's Ring of Fury with this build, but there's no point with access to so many spells already.

Publius- Level 2 mage of High Magic, Forbidden Rod, Golden Crown of Atrazaar
Daria's teacher in High Magic, Publius has been secretly experimenting with the forbidden power of Loec to boost his powers. So far, his protective crown has warded off the deadly consequences, but someday his luck may catch up with him.
This mage abuses three different things: The Banner of Sorcery (which I am fairly sure wards against the Rod), the Golden Crown (just in case a TO rules against me on plan 1, and it always helps to have an extra wound between Teclis and the enemy), and finally he takes advantage of the free reroll a player can have once every game. If I roll a 1 for my power dice on the Rod, that warrants a reroll, as does if I fail my ward save.

The Silent Guardian (Caradryan)-
The Silent Guardian mysteriously showed up at Dal Quain at the same time that Daria began her studies with the High Elves. He has guarded her often in battle. The Guardian is a renegade Phoenix Guard of sorts, in that he has been known to occasionally speak, usually for the sake of slaying enemies of the colony. His active use of his god's power is distained by the other Phoenix Guard, and while they acknowledge his right to choose, they will not allow him within their ranks.
Caradryan almost didn't make it into my list, he costs a fair bit more than a regular hero and I had originally planned on giving my BSB a ward save and plugging up the front with him. This would have allowed me to also field a very accurate Handmaiden with the Reaver Bow in my army to compliment the Moonbow. But then I realized I want my BSB to be one of my last characters to die and that Caradryan actually can relieve me of some of my worst nightmares. He can wound a unit of trolls or an abomination or a hydra before the White Lions, meaning they don't have to worry about regeneration. Those are all big threats and I'm not guaranteed to get Flaming Sword off. His magic resistance will be a waste with the World Dragon Banner, but his d3 wounds if he dies will be awesome especially if the character that killed him has to reroll ward saves due to Other Trickster's Shard. The best part about him though is his d3 wounds halberd. If I can cast Savage Beast on this guy, he has 6 strength 8 attacks that all deal d3 wounds each. This guy could literally kill 6 Ironguts by himself (426 points of monstrous infantry), and not too much of a stretch either! All he has to do is hit on rerollable threes and wound on twos, throw in Harmonic Convergence to help the odds even more :). The multiple wounds rolls would obviously hamper this, but it shows the guy's sheer destructive power. Best of all he can accept a challenge with an unkillable chaos Lord or BSB and kill it if he gets a little luck and Damien makes way into base to base with his Other Trickster's Shard (A chaos lord can get Dragonhelm sure, but the more popular BSB build can't afford it).

Acastus- Noble BSB, Charmed Shield, Reaver Bow, Potion of Strength, heavy armor
The treacherous son of a rival noble family, Acastus is earning his prince's rank by serving as the Battle Standard of the armies of Dal Quain.
The Reaver Bow is really good now, I wanted to afford a Handmaiden to use it with balistic skill 7 (and therefore always a 2+ to hit), but the points weren't there after fitting in Caradryan. Potion of Strength makes his arrows strength 8 for a turn, and I can even repeat the effect with a single cast Savage Beast of Horros! If one of my front line characters goes down, he will be the one to nobly step up to the front rank. Every wound between the enemy and Teclis counts, thus the Charmed Shield.

Damien- Noble, Sword of Might, Shield of the Merwyrm, Other Trickster's Shard, longbow, heavy armor (*Free hero, the tournament has a special rule that allows each player to take a single combat character, on foot that cannot be the BSB, free of cost as long as he costs 130 points or less. This character generates no victory points if you kill him.)
Damien is the son of Lord Cyrus and the heir to the kingdom of Dal Quain. He has sworn to protect his mistress Daria from harm during the dangerous missions ahead.
It's a lot easier to justify taking a character bus of epic proportions in 8th edition (an edition that in my opinion encourages infantry blocks over characters) when the tournament rules happen to provide you with one free of charge. The restrictions should make this rule barely helpful to armies like Warriors of Chaos (who need to spend an arm and a leg to get their truly great characters), but it's perfect for me because it's barely enough allowance to totally deck out a foot noble. Acastus, Cyrus and Damien make up my front rank plugs (along with the musician and standard of the rank and file), and keep my weaker characters safe from harm with their 4+ ward saves, that should usually be a 3+ with my brutal magic phases. He needs to stay at least a model away from the other characters so he doesnt interfere with their ward saves, but Other Trickster's shard is the only way I can maybe kill off a Tzeentch Chaos Lord on a disk. Refuse challenges (or accept with Caradryan if I am sure my opponent does not have fire ward), hopefully my BSB gets bumped instead of this guy, everything attacks chaos lord who has to reroll his ward saves. I can dream can't I?

Rare units: NONE! (A couple eagles to speed bump and let me shoot longer would have been nice, but I could only take two with no grand army rules and they would just be cannon kills anyway)

Special units:

21 White Lions (Full command group, Banner of the World Dragon)
Two no brainer choices. With so many characters, I want to make sure they don't run. I also don't want to lose these characters to Death Snipes. It's always a guilty feeling running the World Dragon if you run into a Daemon player, but I need it with so much casting to protect my troops from miscast templates more than anything.

25 Phoenix Guard (Standard bearer, Razor Standard)
Frost Phoenixes are great, but even with Grand Army rules disabled an Empire player could easily take 2 Steam tanks and 3 cannons at this points level. As awesome as a frost phoenix is, it can't do much against that kind of barrage to survive other than roll very lucky. I think cannons are oversaturated in the no-comp Warhammer scene, and silly as this sounds I made this list partly with the hopes of frustrating cannon-heavy opponents by giving them nothing good to shoot at. Phoenix Guard are a lousy target for almost any kind of shooting, especially if you deploy them thin and reform when combat gets close. As a defensive army I will have this option.

5 Dragon Princes (Standard, Gleaming Pennant)
I like to have 5 dragon princes with gleaming pennant in my army, because with good leadership and a rerolled test they can go on the outskirts of the battlefield since they don't depend on the general's guidance. They are the closest thing to a cannon target in my army, and they are practically immune to Skullcannon fire and most of the Chaos Dwarf toys.

Core units:

15 Archers (musician)
These guys are still not great troops, but Teclis should make them great at least for one tournament. Flaming Sword, Withering, Harmonic Convergence, maybe Hand of Glory, all those spells should really increase my damage output in this shooty army.

24 Lothern Seaguard (standard, musician)
Really I can't justify taking these from a competitive standpoint normally. The range and lower price of Archers makes them better in pretty much every way now that they get martial prowess. I'll be honest, I take them because I have a beautiful regiment of old Maiden Guard models that I like an excuse to bring to tournaments. But it must be said that with all the nice damage boosting augments and hexes I got with Teclis they could be made into a decent fighting unit. They have good attack totals and accuracy, they just need an easier time wounding which I think I can usually provide.

5 Reavers (spears, bows)
5 Reavers (spears, bows)
5 Reavers (Spears bows)

I wish I had more of these guys to bring honestly. I doubt any of them will survive any of my games, but as war machine hunters, flank chargers, chaff clearers and sacrificial movement blockers they are incredible.


Thoughts on Spell selection:
Thulius's (Teclis's) spells-
1.Flaming Sword of Rhuin- This is just the best spell in the otherwise weak lore of fire. It sucks that they can no longer make White Lions auto-wound with this, but high elf core still need all the help they can get wounding stuff. It casts on a roll of 3 or higher with Teclis which is hugely efficient (5 of his spells share this benefit of 8+ casting cost or lower).
2. Plague of Rust- At first I was going to take Glittering robe to boost my awful armor saves, but then I switched to the Plague for two reasons: A) High armor save armies are a rough matchup for high elves and B) The low spell cost and permanent effect make it a very economical spell for a shooty army especially if your opponent lets it through early. Glittering Robe is only really good on the fairly expensive bubble cast and I should be devoting my dice elsewhere when combat rolls around.
3. Savage Beast of Horros- A big goal of this army list is to actually kill an unkillable Chaos lord or BSB. The first step in this equation is Damien's Other Trickster's Shard, the second step is Savage Beast of Horros on Caradryan to blast six strength 8, d3 wound attacks into the chaos defiler. Suddenly the chaos character goes from rerolling his ward saves to having to reroll them and a single one of Caradryan's wounds could prove fatal.
4. Pha's Protection- One of the best spells in the game for the High Elves if you can maximize its bubble effect. High elves don't like getting hit, so an obvious answer is to make the entire army a fair bit harder to hit.
5. Harmonic Convergence- Normally this spell isn't great for high elves since we already reroll our missed attacks usually. White Lions don't anymore, so they really appreciate this spell which makes them much more likely to hit, and they also practically auto-wound. This is a spell I should usually single cast on the White Lions only since they gain the most and it lets me throw only two dice on it.
6. Flesh to Stone- Dwellers may well be the best spell in the game, but healing my characters is all-important. The facts that this spell has a nice effect and is cast on a 3+ for Teclis on two dice are icing on the cake.
7. The Withering- This is probably the best spell in the game for a high elf shooting army. It is amazing both in terms of shooting and combat offense and also for magic defense as opponents waste their own power dice removing it from play.
8. Purple Sun of Xereus- I was very tempted to take Soul Blight, which is probably the best spell in the lore overall. I took Purple Sun of Xereus because it is a chance at a jackpot of restarting my magic phase with the Lifestealing perk, and because it makes for near-free wins against Ogres, Lizardmen, Dwarfs, Undead and Orcs and Goblins.

My two lesser mages chose High Magic to gain Lilieath's Blessing (+3 to cast), to boost the ward saves of my "front line plug" characters to a 3+, and to help eachother guarantee spell selection. I hardly intend to use either signature spell ever. The spell order in terms of what I would most like to get are:
1. Apotheosis- I would love to have a second heal spell to help with Flesh to Stone, and boosting ward saves is awesome too.
2. Hand of Glory- Helps my shooting, but more importantly it hopefully makes my characters and even elite infantry harder to hit in combat (stacks nicely with Pha's).
3. Arcane Unforging- Basically if I run into Warriors of Chaos this spell could make my life a LOT better. Otherwise it's pretty nice to have around, but not a must-have.
4. Fiery Convocation- Since I am not taking Dwellers this spell is a nice alternative to taking out large infantry units.
5. Tempest- Usually a drop-down spell, but I will keep and use this if my opponent takes large blocks or has lots of shooting.
6. Walk Between Worlds- I would usually tell anyone that this is the best spell in the lore. But it's useful for offensive armies, which is usually the best way to play high elves but not with Teclis. My units need to stay back and shoot, not be trucked around the field. With that said, this could be nice for setting up my dragon princes to snag a war machine on turn 2.





Unique tournament rules and how my army list attempts to abuse them:

Free combat hero on foot- This is what it says. The tournament allows you to take a free hero from your army book up to 130 points, but it must be on foot and it cant have any spells either bound or selected. If it gets killed it's worth zero points to the game. This was a great excuse to field my Damien character, who is a durable bearer of the Other trickster's Shard and fits the slot exactly at 129 points :), basically he is a free "front rank plug" for my Teclis list, which depends on Teclis reaching the front rank of the unit as late in the game as possible if not never.

Free "Oh-sheeit" reroll: If a player makes the full donation for the charity, they get a single free reroll on any single die of their choice in each of the five games. I fully realize that my list being so character heavy means a single stroke of bad luck could cost me the entire game at any time, so the free reroll is something I intend to have up my sleeve for the following situations (in order of importance):
1. Missed "Look out Sir" rolls- A major concept of my list is that any of my opponents who take cannons/steam tanks/ironblasters/skullcannons are going to have nothing better to do with this expensive weaponry than try to snipe Teclis through a failed Look out Sir roll. While this is awesome in that it is a low likelihood event and my opponent should lose more through misfires than I will, it is also bad in that it is an absolute jackpot attempt that my opponents are going to be making, often several times per turn. Having a free reroll if Teclis fails his roll could keep him around for several more turns if not the entire game. This list lives and dies with Teclis, and it's nice to have tournament perks in my favor as far as keeping him up.
2. Bad miscasts- I say "bad miscasts", because lots of miscasts aren't that bad at all when all my mages are parked in a unit with the Banner of the World Dragon. The entire unit has a 2+ ward against the templates. Dimensional Cascade is a huge risk however and should always be rerolled (you can reroll one of the two dice and hope it rolls higher).
3. Undercasts-I made Teclis so that he can cast 5 of his spells on two dice on anything but Snake-eyes (or one if he blows the Moonstaff for the free power die per cast), thus maximizing his staff's advantage for a super magic phase. While this should be incredibly efficient, if I roll double ones early in the magic phase it disrupts the entire plan of magical domination. This is definitely a worthy time to use the one-die reroll for a 5/6 chance to ignore this setback.
4. Bad result on the Forbidden Rod- Forbidden Rod (the way I am trying to ignore its side effect), can either be the best 35 points you've ever spent if you roll a 6, or the worst if you roll a 1. This is a great "pro-active" time to use my reroll because I am a lot less likely to roll snake-eyes on two dice than a 1 on one die, so I should always at least get a better result, and every power die counts in this army...

Thanks for still reading lol. All things considered, I would predict that my army should do well against:
Warriors of Chaos: Purple Sun to kill Throgg and his buddies (which any sane umcomped chaos player takes), likely Arcane Unforging to deal with an unkillable character's ward, buffs and hexes up the wazoo to beat up chaos warriors, and Banner of the World Dragon for the popular Nurgle Death Prince, they have small armies so I am not outnumbered too bad for once. And of course fire to slay the dreaded uncle Festus!
Orcs and Goblins, plenty of shooting to snipe out Mangler Squigs. Their armor sucks overall so it's not a bad matchup for our terrible core. Wounding so often on a 5+ stinks but I've dealt with it for 4 editions. Trolls are dealt with by either Flaming Sword or Purple Sun. I think my guys can always be buffed up enough to beat any Savage Orc horde.
Ogre Kingdoms, Lizardmen, Dwarfs: all these guys should just be trashed by Purple Sun spam. Just two of these getting off over the course of a game should guarantee a win against them. Hellheart will cost me a magic phase since I have so many mages in one spot, but the results shouldnt be that bad since only Dimensional Cascade can ignore my 2+ ward saves. Any gutstar is dead. Dwarf artillery mostly have runes making the World Dragon Banner work against them, and my army is not very vulnerable to cannon fire as long as I have my free tournament reroll each game.
Daemons of Chaos: I don't think there is a single way a Daemons player could threaten me, and it's kind of sad because hosing them wasnt an intention in making this list. It's going to be fun to laugh at their Skullcannons though. My characters will all have a 2+ ward save against their whole army, that should break even Epidemus lists.

However, I might struggle against:
Empire:
This should be the worst one, while my army gets nice buffs, they don't really provide armor penetration. I only have plague of rust to help, Withering, Flaming Sword and Harmonic Convergence all don't penetrate armor. So a game against a good Empire player would probably involve surviving Dwellers (which is the bane of my army, hence the two dispell scrolls), and getting a few big Savage Beast casts off.
Skaven: This is one of the few armies whose magic phases could overpower mine. I think a good skaven player would just 6-dice Dreaded 13th every turn at me. At least Teclis gives me a chance at removing that spell. Slave hordes should thankfully be easy for me to clear, but this is just a rough army for high elves to face since they have so many ways to just delete our small units.
Dark Elves: Does this really need explaining? It's the old book too since the new book came out less than a month before the tournament.

Re: Screw City GT Chicago (List thoughts, reports and pictures)

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 3:55 pm
by Hortennse
Game 1- Opponent: Ryan Nicol- High Elves
Prince on Star Dragon- Dragon Armor, Ogre Blade, Talisman of Preservation, Enchanted Shield
Level 2 Mage (Shadow Magic-Miasma and Withering), Dispell Scroll, Ring of Fury
Level 2 Mage (Mindrazor and Enfeebling), Power Stone
Noble BSB, Dragon Armor, Reaver Bow, Charmed Shield, Potion of Strength
30 Seaguard with shields
12 Archers
20 Archers
20 Swordmasters- Banner of the World Dragon
5 Shadow Warriors
5 Dragon Princes
Frostheart Phoenix
3 Bolt Throwers
2 Great Eagles

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We rolled for initiative and I rolled a 4 which was boosted to a 5 by having dropped all my stuff first, but Nicol rolled a 6 and took the first turn. Bad bad news against a Star Dragon, a Frost Phoenix, and all kinds of bolt throwers and archery, and it meant I wouldnt have Teclis's spells to boost my protection with Pha's and such.
Ryan went forward quickly on the sides with the dragon princes towards my seaguard, but he kept his Frost Phoenix and Star Dragon out of my charge distance. Reapeater Bolt Throwers cut up my Reavers pretty bad early on.

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I total powered a Fiery Convocation on my first turn, but stupidly case it on the Swordmasters instead of the Seaguard, who of course had Banner of the World Dragon so I only did a couple wounds. My own banner protected me from the miscast damage.

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I got shot up pretty bad from this point on, the only bright spot for me in the early part of this game was that my Dragon Princes held on against the Frost Phoenix for 4 rounds of combat despite doing no wounds.

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Things finally went my way when I got my second Fiery Convocation off, this time against the Seaguard. They went down quickly, but it took the spell 3 turns to kill the stupid champion to seal the points. This was only possible because my opponent was really unlucky in trying to dispell the spell.

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Although the Dragon chewed up my Seaguard, I was able to get a charge on it with my White Lions and characters, because he didn't want to run and potentially run off the board and also leave the Swordmasters without inspiring presence. I was able to cast Savage Beast on Caradryan and accepted a challenge (he was hoping I would refuse so he could bump my mages up to the front rank). Caradryan threw all 6 strength 8 attacks at the Star Dragon and killed it in 1 round before it got to strike. He was almost immune to the prince's response attacks since he had a magic weapon. He broke but I didn't catch him, but next turn I charged into the dragon princes he ran past, slaughtered them, and overran into him.

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The last thing to happen in the game was my Phoenix Guard got a flank charge into the swordmasters, who had rolled unlucky on a charge and shambled forward into the exact wrong position. They broke and the game was considered over.


Win: 7 points
Bonus Objective Completed (Have my "Free Hero" (Damien) in my opponent's deployment zone at the end of the battle): 3 points
Current Battle Points Total: 10 out of 10 possible.


Final Thoughts: My opponent won best High Elf award in the end at this GT, so that should bring some hope for you dragon enthusiasts. I was lucky to win, I think if my opponent could have the decision back he might have fled with his dragon even if it meant losing his swordmasters, but hindsight is always 20/20. I would have made the same decision, I just had a huge magic phase that made the combat impossible for the dragon to survive.


Game 2- opponent: Brian Burmeister- High Elves (again)


Here come Frost Phoenixes #2 and 3 for the day so far.

His list: (I don't have his list so I'm doing this from pictures)
Everqueen with High Magic (can't remember spells exactly, because not many got cast by him this game, I do remember he had Apotheosis because I was desparate to keep him from healing a Frost Phoenix back up)
BSB on Great Eagle with I think Star Lance and charmed shield and golden crown
28 Phoenix Guard (deployed 6 wide)
30-something White Lions with Banner of World Dragon (Everqueen deployed in here)
30 Archers
2 Frost Phoenixes
2 Great Eagles
3 units of 5 Reavers

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I won the first turn this time and my shooting was all aimed at the big unit of archers, killing about 2/3rds of them.

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The Frost Pheonixes were all set up to devastate my right and left sides of my army, but he rolled short on a charge for both flyers. I shot up his right Phoenix for a few wounds with the breathing space. My Reavers killed a great eagle with a charge and the left phoenix panicked towards the edge.

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The next turn the right phoenix charged my seaguard but died to the stand and shoot shots and the other frost phoenix failed to rally and ran off the board!

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The game was mostly over at this point, but he did have one more chance when his phoenix guard charged mine, and due to their width they had more attacks. My guard held on though, and next turn they were buffed with Hand of Glory and Pha's Protection and Flaming Sword to guarantee that I won that combat. He wisely stayed back with the Everqueen all game since her magic attacks would have bounced off my World Dragon Banner.

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Win: 7 points
Secret Mission objective completed (free Hero must survive battle and not be fleeing) 3 points
Current Battle Points Total: 20 out of 20 possible.


Final Thoughts: My opponent's list was very very powerful, maybe the best high elf list I've fought against. But when you devote the points to two Frost Phoenixes and not only do both of those Phoenixes end up as casualties but neither ever sees combat, it's pretty hard to come back from that. Shooting down the Phoenix on the right side was unlikely but feasible, especially after it failed its first charge. For the other Phoenix to panic, and then fail to rally and run off the board, is I think a 1/36 chance of happening. He was winning the battle of the Phoenix Guard units thanks to his combat reform and I had to pass a non-steadfast break test, but then I had a huge four-augment magic phase to guarantee my troops came back in that fight. The Everqueen was just an awful match-up against my World Dragon Banner unit with her magic attacks and he wisely kept her unit at a safe distance. Unfortunately this kept a big unit from ever reaching combat as well.


Game 3- Opponent: Chaos Dwarfs played by Jon Cash


The Special Scenario goal required us to trade our free heroes as the game to use as "traitors". The bonus goal was to kill the traitor. Probably the coolest scenario goal I had ever seen, except for the fact that it was ruled that since his character has some rule where it cannot join units that do not have the contempt special rule, none of my units could be joined by the castellan who ended up having to stand uselessly by himself, whereas my character was able to join the huge hobgoblin block and grant it leadership 9. This bugged me to say the least.

Johnny Cash, who was one of the coolest guys I've ever played against, brought:
Sorceror Prophet Death Magic
Infernal Castelan BSB
Daemonsmith Metal Magic
3 Hobgoblin Khans on wolves
32 Infernal Guard
44 Hobgoblins with shields (The noble he took from my army joined them to give leadership 9)
20 Hobgoblins with bows
Magma Cannon
Daemon Engine Hellbound
Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher
6 K'Daii Fireborn
D'Daii Destroyer
Hellcannon

This game started well for me, even though I lost my Dragon princes to artillery first turn. I killed off the Magma cannon with a Purple Sun before it got a hit on me. I also charged the Daemon Engine, denying its hits, with my Phoenix Guard who had Flaming Sword to help them wound the Engine on a 5+. They killed it within 3 rounds of combat.
While my Seaguard were getting slaughtered by the Fireborn, I killed the K'Daii destroyer with my character bus.

He brought a great looking army.

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Killing the K'Daii pumped me up pretty good, and then I marched forward all the way with my White Lions and got charged from all directions. It was such a dumb move I just got fixated on one unit and didn't think about the rest of the battleflied. The only good part is my BSB was able to kill the Traitor in a challenge just barely before I lost the game over this blunder.

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At some point in the game I let him kill my Castellan with Caress of Lanyph, because it was useless to me and I didn't feel the need to deny him his bonus points.


Loss- 3 Points
Bonus Goal Completed (kill "Traitor" Free Hero that I traded to opponent) 3 points
Current Battle Points Total: 26 out of 30 possible.


Final Thoughts on Game 3:

I want to say that I thought this scenario was a really cool idea, but it was pretty rough that the Chaos Dwarf character I got couldn't join any of my units. He was pretty much useless all battle and I eventually let my opponent just kill him. Worse was not having the character to plug up the front rank of my character bus since I gave mine away to my opponent.
The only way I can justify such a dumb move is that I was really tired from a 7 hour drive the night before due to construction, and that I just got overconfident when I killed off the K'Daii Destroyer so easily. I didn't even think about the flank and rear charges I was opening up by moving so far forward, which was a truly brainless move to the point of embarrassment. John Cash played well though, and he really did a great job of baiting me with the Bonus points
It turned out that I was 150 points in the lead when I decided to march my character bus in so stupidly. If I had known this I could have possibly stayed back and waited out the win, but I don't believe in stopping to do a bunch of points-math in mid-game I think it's poor sportsmanship. What I didnt know cost me as a narrow win turned into a massive defeat, the only good news was that a margin of defeat doesn't matter, a win is 7 points and a loss is 3 points no matter how bad you lose.
At first I was absolutely kicking myself for being so stupid to march my character bus to their deaths, and I thought this loss was going to take me out of any contention for the tournament, but then I realized if I had not risked (and as it turned out, lost) my center unit, I would not have reached and killed the Traitor character I had exchanged with my opponent. Killing him was worth 3 points, so with 3 points for the loss and 3 points for the objective things turned out only 1 point worse than if I had won the game but not completed the objective.

Game 4- Opponent: Lizardmen
I was matched up next against Joe Cook, a great guy but sadly the owner of the lowest paint score in the tournament at 16 :P He took a channel-happy list, 3 skink shamans and a Harmonic/channel staff Slann. I forgot to get his list from him and I'm listing this off of pictures, so I don't have listed what items his characters had.
Slann, Lore of Shadow, with Harmonic Convergence, Channeling staff and some other stuff (Spells were Mindrazor, Withering, Miasma and Pit of Shades)
3 Skink Priests (Harmonic Convergence, Wyssan's and Flock of Seagulls :P )
Oldblood on Cold one (in his Spear unit)
Kroq-Gar (also in Spear unit)
Skink Hero on Terradon
Saurus hero alone on cold one
Free Saurus Hero on foot (in spear unit)
2 individual Salamanders
3 units of 10 skink skirmishers with javelins
6 chameleon skinks
8 chameleon skinks
30 Saurus with spears
14 Saurus with hand weapons
24 Saurus with Hand weapons
Ancient Stegadon with Giant Blowpipes

Scenario Goal: Your hero is in an invisible assassin like the dark elves have. You have to deploy him in secret and try to kill either a champion or hero with him in the game.

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I outdeployed him and won first turn. First turn I total powered a Fiery Convocation through (sound familiar?) into his unit of Saurus Spearmen, killing 14 of them and almost as good it caused a wound to the mighty Kroq-Gar! The miscast was the hit on all of the mages and 2 out of 3 of them caused a wound on teclis and another mage due to 1's rolled by World Dragon's save. Shooting didn't go well and the skinks were hard to hit, but the Dragon Princes charged and wiped out a unit of chameleons that had deployed in the middle.

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He charged his Saurus into my Dragon Princes, who fled back behind my other units, but nothing panicked. Salamanders weren't close enough to move and shoot so they marched. His magic phase was an awesome eleven dice to four for me due to lots of channels being rolled, but since he had to devote lots of dice to dispelling Fiery Convocation I was able to stop all his magic with just one of my scrolls being used up in the process.

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The Dragon princes rallied but in an awkward position stuck behind the white lions and seaguard. Magic rolled I think a 10 this phase, and declared Teclis' power too. But my opponent was clever and let Withering through and then used Cube of Darkness on my Pha's Protection cast. Suddenly all I had to show for my awesome magic phase was a Flaming Sword on the Seaguard and a Soul Quench on a unit of skinks. The Moonbow shot well and killed a Salamander.

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I continued to dominate the magic phases, my opponent started rolling very low for winds of magic. Eventually he had my Phoenix Guard blocked with skinks, and my White Lion bus was charged by the Ancient Stegadon and the lone mounted Saurus Hero. Caradryan challenged the hero and they both caused 1 wound a piece. The Ancient Stegadon was cut down by axes before it ever got to attack, so all the wounds it caused were 3 impact hits. The Hero broke but was not run down. However I did charge into the Saurus Spear block which was depleted from the Fiery Convocation. I got Flaming Sword and Harmonic Convergence off on the White Lions and Characters, sadly there was no champion to kill left since the flames had burned it down turn 1, so Damien tried throw all his attacks at Gor-Rok, who had wounded him with his Dangerous Terrain Test shield. Three hits wounded, and neither was saved and the Toughness 6 Hero went down, securing my bonus points. The White Lions and other character slaughtered and broke the Saurus unit and the game was basically over (margin of victory didn't matter so he conceded at this point because he wasn't feeling well and needed to rest up for the last game).

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Win: 7 points
Bonus Objective Completed (Kill an enemy hero of champion with your free Hero- he killed Gor-Rok) 3 points
Current Battle Points Total: 36


Final Thoughts on Game 4:
I think that the biggest factor in the outcome of this battle was that my Winds of Magic rolls were better in the latter stages of the game, so I was able to get augmetns and he wasn't. I killed the skinks and salamanders fairly efficiently after winning the first turn, and the Saurus were no match for White Lions boosted with Harmonic Convergence and Flaming Sword. Killing the Stegadon Ancient before it got its attacks and thunderstomp was huge. It was also a lucky fluke that Fiery Convocation was able to cause a wound to the mighty Gor-Rok on turn one, which made it easier for my "Assassin Hero" to kill him off and secure the bonus objective points for the 4th straight game.

Game 5- Opponent: Dark Elves (old book) played by Eric Lenz

My round 5 opponent brought dark elves, who are using the old book for the last time since the new book was released less than a month before the tournament. His list was unique, but also very scary for my High Elves:

Supreme Sorceress, Level 4 (Metal Magic, rolled Final Transmutation, Transmutation of Lead, Searing Doom, and Enchanted Blades of Aiban), Darkstar Cloak, Pendant of Khaeleth, Black Dragon Egg
Sorceress, Level 2 (Shadow Magic, rolled Miasma and Withering) Dispell Scroll
Master- 2x Repeating Handbow, Heavy armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Beastmaster's Scourge, Guiding Eye
Master BSB- Cold One, Hydra Banner, 1+ armor save, lance
Death Hag on Cauldron of Blood
Free Hero- Master, Armor of Darkness, Crimson Death
Assassin, Rune of Khaine, Manbane, extra hand weapon
40x Repeater Crossbowmen with shields
24 Corsairs with Frenzy Standard
5 Harpies
5 Harpies
13 Cold One Knights, Ranger Standard, Death Piercer on champ
21 Witch Elves- Rune of Khaine
War Hydra

I should count myself lucky that there was no unkillable Dreadlord the last time I had to face the old dark elf book, but the block of 40 Crossbowmen with the Guiding Eye to reroll shooting misses meant that I was against a deadly opponent for my High Elves.
There was a marker at the middle of the table this round and the Bonus Objective was to hold more "Fortitude" within 9 inches of the marker. For my High Magic I rolled Hand of Glory, Arcane Unforging, Fiery Convocation and Drain Magic.

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He under-deployed me by one even though I won the first drop to get the +1 bonus for the first turn, and I had set up my army close enough that his huge crossbowmen block would be able to shoot me on turn 1 by moving up. We rolled for the first turn and he rolled a 4 which became a 5. With low hopes I threw the die and rolled a 6. Such a relief that Teclis would at least get the first turn to get his spells off, I declared the Moonstaff on turn 1. I basically moved my Seaguard and other shooting into range of the Crossbowmen unit (I had to reduce its size before they shot), and then cast Flaming Sword of Ruin on the Seaguard and bubble Harmonic Convergence on my archers, characters, Dragon Princes and Seaguard. I also think I managed to force out his Dispell Scroll to stop my Withering. Not great defensive benefits except for the Princes (who were thankfully in front), but the two spells boosted my shooting enough to kill 14 of the 40 Crossbowmen. 28 fewer armor piering, re-roll to hit shots coming my way...

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My opponent moved his units largely towards my Seaguard, Witch Elves moved forward on the right. His Cold One unit failed its stupidity test despite having the BSB in the unit for the reroll, and they moved forward an inch. He had a nice magic phase roll but I desparately burned a dispell scroll to prevent him from getting any spells off. He shot 52 bolts at the Dragon Princes, but thanks to Harmonic Convergence only 2 of the 5 Princes were shot down and they passed their panic test.

I charged the remaining 3 Dragon Princes into the flank of the Black Ark Corsairs who were moving towards the Seaguard. His assassin had to leap out, and it was a nice bonus as the Princes got to kill it before they died against the superior force and his free hero.
I had an amazing magic phase (popped Forbidden Rod and only took one wound which was prevented by Golden Crown), and I cast both Hand of Glory (which rolled a 3, bringing the Seaguard's BS up to 7!) and Flaming Sword on the Seaguard and followed it up with another bubble Harmonic Convergence. This meant that the Seaguard were hitting the crossbowmen on 2's and wounding on 3's while rerolling 1's! My boosted center archery shot the Crossbowmen block down to 14 (28 shots left though, their shields were really making a difference with their armor saves) and the reavers on the left shot down several more of the witch elves while staying at max charge range to try to force a frenzy charge from them so they could stand and shoot as well.
The Corsairs charged the buffed Seaguard, who stood and shot to devastating effect with all their augments (think I killed 11 out of 24), but they were also charged by harpies on the flank and the Hydra barely made a long charge to join on the corner. I couldn't flee because the harpies were too close and they would have run me down. His big Cold One unit amazingly failed their stupidity test for the second straight time. He cast Final Transmutation on my character bus and I had to use Teclis' Scroll of Hoeth, but I lost the dice-off to remove that spell from the game. In combat the Seaguard killed 3 harpies and killed all but 5 of the Corsairs, but the surviving 5 hit back hard with Frenzy and then the Hydra hit REALLY hard. I only had 5 Seaguard left at the end, needed snake-eyes to hold, and rolled a 3, which meant they ran. They were run down by the Corsairs while the Hydra held.


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At this point I was scared, I did not expect the Seaguard to go down with so many buffs. The only good thing about the disaster of losing them was that the Corsairs' overrun ran them directly next to my character bus, exposing the remaining 5 models (and his free hero) to a flank shot with the Moonbow with a simple swift reform. I did so, and the Moonbow slew the Hero (ignoring armor of Darkness, and pierced through the remaining 4 infantry models as well since it was a flank shot, wiping out what was left of the unit and partially avenging the fallen Seaguard. The Hydra stood pretty much alone on that side of the table now. I started moving the Phoenix Guard all the way forward to position myself to charge the Crossbowmen, who were still doing pretty good damage to my White Lion unit.

I unintentionally moved the Phoenix Guard too close to the Cold One unit and was charged, I didn't expect them to charge since they were in the woods and would have needed dangerous terrain tests, but he revealed the unit had the Ranger Standard so they ignored it and my Phoenix Guard had to withstand this nasty charge with only Harmonic Convergence and Hold Your Ground to help them. Also the Phoenix Guard was charged by the remaining 4 Witch elves on the flank and the harpies in the rear. I hoped these harpies and Witch elves would be easy kills, but my Phoenix Guard only killed 2 witch elves and 2 harpies. I threw 10 of my 13 front attacks at the BSB, expecting him to have Hydra Banner I knew I had to kill him (+1 attack for both riders and mounts if they got to strike with him alive). 10 attacks led to 6 hits which led to 5 wounds, his 1+ armor save was modified to 3+, he failed exactly 2 saves and barely died. This was really lucky of me and saved me all kinds of attacks back from the unit. I lost the combat, but stayed steadfast by 1 rank. The Hydra itelf breathed strength 4 breath on my White Lions, and I lost 5 I think with help from a small Shield of Saphery.

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I turned the character bus to face the Hydra and surrounded it with all the rest of my shooting, hoping to bring it down (it had only taken 1 wound so far). With another nice magic phase I cast bubble Harmonic Convergence, Bubble Pha's Protection (both bubbles helped the Phoenix Guard), and Flaming Sword of Ruin on the character bus to boost the Moonbow and take away regen. In spite of taking away its regen, the Moonbow caused only 1 wound and the rest of my shooting left the monster alive with 1 wound left. The Phoenix Guard did a lot better with Pha's to help, they killed the last harpies but still left one witch elf alive. They killed several Cold One Knights and didn't take many losses back.

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The next two turns my opponent did something interesting with his magic phases. He went for Final Transmutation on my character bus hoping to snipe out characters, but twice in a row I let it through because I couldnt stand the thought of letting him restart his magic phases with Power of Darkness casts and Augment up his Cold One Knights to turn the combat against my Phoenix Guard around. It worked out because the Phoenix Guard killed off the last Witch Elf and ran down the Cold One Knights into the Cauldron of Blood, but I lost Caradryan to the first cast and my BSB to the second cast of it. Not bad considering the risk I was taking. He still almost shot my White Lions down to nothing, but my final cast of the game was a Fiery Convocation that killed off 13 out of 14 of his remaining crossbowmen and his level 2 sorceress as well. His army was gone except for his Sorceress Lord and his Cauldron, so we shook hands as the game was over and I had the objective locked up.

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I killed off: 21 Witch Elves, 24 Corsairs, 40 Crossbowmen, 13 Cold One Knights, BSB on Cold One, 1 Sorceress, 10 Harpies, Free Hero, Assassin, 1 Hydra
He killed off: 24 Seaguard, 5 Dragon Princes, Caradryan, Noble BSB


Win: 7 points
Bonus Objective Completed (hold more "fortitute" within 9 inches of center marker at end of game) 3 points
Final Battle Points Total: 46 out of 50 possible


Final Thoughts on game 5:
I absolutely needed the first turn to have a chance, because if a 40-man block of armor-piercing Repeater Crossbowmen gets to shoot 80 shots at me with rerolls with the Seeing Eye, he's going to nearly erase a unit I have even if he is only hitting on 6's. I needed the first turn to diminish the return fire, and since he out-deployed me by one drop and rolled a 4 for an effective 5, you could say I had a 1 in 6 chance of winning this game. I rolled a 6, bubbled-cast some shooting augments and killed almost half his crossbowmen, and that made all the difference. It also allowed me to shoot the witch elves down to near nothing before they got close, and my opponent had terrible luck in failing his rerollable stupidity test twice with his Cold One Knights on the first two turns. It was also crucial late in the game where he only failed to dispell my Fiery Convocation on his remaining Crossbowmen (who were going to kill off all my White Lion models) by a rolled 23 to 22. That amazing flame scorched the shooters and pretty much finalized the win where beforehand it was still very much in doubt because my model counts were getting low even though I had only lost the unit of Seaguard to the hydra and Caradryan and the BSB to the Final Transmutations I let through. Letting through two Final Transmutationss on my character bunker was a huge risk, especially considering how I seemed to be channeling 6's this game, but I needed to keep him from restarting his magic phase with the old Power of Darkness spell. The reason my Phoenix Guard defeated that 3-way charge and the deadly Cold One Knights was because I had my Guard augmented and his troops were not, and for that reason I risked my characters' lives and sacrificed two of them by letting the Transmutations through. It paid off and the Phoenix Guard won me the game, but it was a big risk and Teclis could have disappeared in a single roll.


Final Battle points: 46 out of 50 possible (four 7-point wins, a 3-point loss, and 15 out of 15 bonus objective points.


With this I was behind only one player, Joe Rogers, who maxed out his Battle Points with a perfect 50 (same score as me except without the loss). Fortunately, the guy is also an amazing painter and good sportsman so he ended up winning Best Overall (which I guess they don't let guys double up on awards), so I ended up winning Best General in the GT as the next highest in Battle Points only. Gary Luther, the Best Ogre award winner, was right behind me with battle 44 points, so my choice to go for the Kill the Traitor objective and get those 3 consolation points in the game I lost was the deciding factor. There was also a high elf player who won all five of his games, but I guess he must have failed to complete some of the bonus objectives if I had more points despite the loss.

This is the second big tournament I've won a trophy at this year, but the first since my son was born. He's going to be Chewbacca for Halloween, so here we are posing with the trophy and his costume.

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Final thoughts: As happy as I am to get Best General, it seemed like a several of my opponents didn't roll well at some crucial times. In game 1 my opponent couldn't dispell Fiery Convocation to save his life with his level 2 mages (remember he was using a star dragon list, and he almost beat me and ended up winning best High Elf player too, so there's some hope for you dragon enthusiasts), and as a result he got maybe one spell off all game. In game 2 my opponent was unlucky to lose one Frost Phoenix to arrows and then have the other one panic off the board with 2 straight failed LD tests. In game 4 the Lizardmen player had a string of 3 or 4 dice Winds of Magic phases in the crucial 3rd, 4th and 5th turns, which was a bad thing since we were both magic heavy lists. In game 5, Eric Lenz would have slaughtered me with his 40 crossbowmen had he won the first turn, and he lost is despite having the initiative and rolling a 4. It was also bad luck that he suffered stupidity on his Cold One unit (with the bsb inside it mind you..) and then when they finally reached combat, he barely lost his 1+ armor save BSB to my Phoenix Guard strikes before Hydra Banner got to take effect (remember, old dark elf book is still in effect since it's such a new release so no ASF yet). Eric Lenz the dark elf player had the worst luck of all of them. I have to give a shout out to him because he never once complained or got down on the game, the guy was a complete role model to gamers because army list-wise he had my number and it had to be frustrating to have his dice let him down so bad.


Overachieving spell of the tournament: Fiery Convocation
Ironic that I took Teclis but it was the forbidden rod caddy whose spell had the biggest effect on the games for me. Without it, I would not have won games 1, 4 or 5. Against the high elves the flames stuck on the swordmasters on turn 1 which he had to dispell eventually despite having Banner of the World Dragon and the spell also blasted the Lothern Seaguard down to nothing simply because it was so hard for a level 2 to dispell (it took me forever to finish off that last model). Against the Lizardmen it took a wound off and removed I think 13 saurus. Against the dark elf it single-handedly rescued me from the 14 remaining crossbowmen that were going to destroy the last of my White Lions down to nothing by killing 13 of them in a single turn. Best of all, all these casts took away the opponents' magic phases since they had to get rid of them.
Honorable mentions: Harmonic Convergence bubble seemed to add significantly to the damage my troops were dealing in multiple combats, and it boosted shooting phases a lot too, which was appreciated because I kept rolling 1's with Alith Anar's Moonbow all tournament long. Flaming Sword of Ruin took away hydra regen and really seemed to be my main damage boosting spell. I always seemed to roll a 3 with my Hand of Glory, which meant weapon skill 9 on my characters so that weapon skill 4 could only hit on 5's. Another irony is that I expected to be spamming bubble Savage Beast of Horros whenever my character bus was in combat, but instead I found myself opting for thr trickle-through casting with Teclis to boost his dice bonus from Moonstaff. However, the cast I succeeded in game 1 was the only way I was going to win the game at that point, and with it Caradryan decimated a Star Dragon in one round.

Underachieving spell of the Tournament: I expected the Withering to be my most significant spell, but I barely ever cast it and one time when I did it was immediately removed before it saw any use by the Cube of Darkness in game 4. I never once cast Arcane Unforging despite rolling it several times, and Purple Sun only served to kill a Magma Cannon in a losing cause against the Chaos Dwarfs.

I secretly hoped to combine Teclis' Moonstaff dice bonus with a big spell dice phase and throw in Forbidden Rod for hopefully six more dice and finish it off with a Purple Sun against an ogre player or something like that to get the best magic phase in history, I found that it was smarter to use the Forbidden Rod to boost one phase and the Moonstaff to boost another.

I'll tell anyone that my Great Lakes Warhammer League win (which I will shamelessly link to in case anyone wants to see the reports http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=45531) is the most satisfying win I've ever had (mainly because I came close the previous year with my dwarfs, and blew it with one roll of the dice). But this takes a close second because as far as I can tell this tournament featured some of the best Warhammer players in several states around Chicago.

I was really lucky to win the Best General, and not just because it was due to me being outscored by the Best Overall winner. Christ Yu, another High Elf player who I'm pretty sure had a flyer heavy list but I didn't play him, won all 5 of his games. The difference for me was getting the bonus objectives in all of the games, which amounted to 15 points, way more than a win versus a loss.

Unit Grades by performance:

Damien: Free noble A++++
He's what won me the Best General, all of the bonus objectives involved him in some way, even the one where I had to trade him to my opponent and then I had to kill him! His best performance was killing Kroq-Gar (who had suffered a wound from Fiery Convocation) in hand to hand combat for a bonus objective, though he did have Flaming Sword to help. My decision to take him as an assassin-type character was a good one.
Teclis: A+
His spell selection was perfect for every game, and he almost saved me by himself against the chaos dwarfs. I think I combined his Moonstaff with the Forbidden Rod in game 1 for a magic phase that might have reached 19 or 20 dice, but besides that I saved the two boost for two separate phases. He never died in the games I won (he would have against the CD player had we gone on though) and his Scroll removed the enemy spell I think 3 out of the 5 games, but the real advantage was having a double dispell scroll.
Publius: Mage with Forbidden Rod and Golden Crown - A
Getting overruled on the Banner of the World Dragon against the Rod was rough, but I rolled 1's all three times I tried it for the wounds after the ruling happened in game 3 so it was didn't end up mattering. He almost overshadowed Teclis by winning me games 1 and 5 (against the first High Elf and the dark elf) by wiping out the huge Seaguard unit and the rest of the Crossbowmen with Fiery Convocation. I was worried he would fail the cast low eventually at a 19+, but he never did in 4 tries throughout the tournament, and it was never dispelled either. Each time this happened it basically robbed my opponent of his next magic phase. Forbidden Rod seemed to roll at least 4 every time, but I used my free reroll in 3 of the games to achieve this.
Phoenix Guard: A-
They won me game 1 by flank charging and running down the swordmasters. They won me game 2 by outlasting the mirror Phoenix Guard unit due to magical augments. They helped and hurt me in game 3 by killing the Daemon Engine with some help from Flaming Sword but hurt me by failing a charge on the hobgoblin archers that would have had me close to his artillery. Game 4 they basically guarded my white Lions' flank and killed skinks. Game 5 they were at their best, killing the Hydra Banner BSB before the Cold One Knights got to use their extra attacks from it. They got rear charged, flank charged and front charged in the same turn and killed a lot of dark elves and came out on top.
White Lions: B+
They pretty much just did their job of keeping my characters safe from magic, they fought well in games 1 and 4, but they didn't see combat in games 2 or 5. The worst part was game 3 where I stupidly marched them into a charge from 3 directions, sealing my only loss. But the same charge at least allowed me to get the Bonus Objective of killing the traitor hero.
24 Seaguard: B
I will be the first to admit that I overcompensated these terrible troops with magical augments. So what? I like the models :P and it was fun to see them shoot up units pretty well. Even 3 augments couldnt save them for even a turn against the Hydra, but they killed 20 out of 24 Corsairs between stand and shoot and the combat.
15 Archers: B
Good damage, really did well against the second High Elf player and especially against the Witch Elves. Harmonic Convergence bubble was a nice boost for them.
Caradryan: B-
He won me game 1 by slaughtering the Star Dragon in a challenge while boosted with Savage Beast, but every game after that he was pretty quiet. I tended to shoot with my magic bows and hope the opponent would charge me, which didn't happen much, so he was kind of the designated sitter. He stunk in the brief challenge with the mounted Saurus Hero, dealing 1 wound and taking 1 despite a boosted ward, and he died to Transmutation in game 5.
Alith Anar: B-
....I feel like I rolled 1's on HALF of his to-hit rolls this tournament. It was a big reason I started prioritizing Harmonic Convergence. In game 1 I even used my free reroll on a to-hit miss against the Star Dragon and rolled a 1 AGAIN! He was on my shit-list until the very last game, where he killed a dark elf hero and the remaining 4 Corsairs with an awesome flank shot and then he shot down the rampaging hydra which had just destroyed my Seaguard. This brought him a long way towards redemption.
Dragon Princes: C+
They were pretty nifty in most of my games, but they were an expendable unit I found. They were actually at their best in game 1 by keeping a Frostheart Phoenix pinned in combat on the edge of the board for I think 4 rounds. A first round charge to wipe out a unit of chameleons was a nice way to start a battle too. They got shot up and ran off the board against the chaos dwarfs however, and I really would have liked to send them into the Fireborn to plug them up, it would have saved my seaguard.
Daria: C+
She got Hand of Glory a lot, and failed to cast it a lot whenever I tried it on 1 die. And I hate always failing rolls that I have a 2/3rds chance to make. She helped the Seaguard kill a lot of Dark Elf Crossbowmen on turn 1 of game 5 though by boosting them to ballistic skill 7 when they already had Flaming Sword on them.
3 units of 5 Reavers- C
They're getting this grade because they shot pretty well. That's pretty much all I used them for, which means I need to get a lot better at using these guys. They could have saved my Seaguard if I had blocked the Hydra correctly.
Reaver Bow BSB - D+
His BSB ability worked just fine, I'm grading this on how his toolkit worked. I missed a lot of shots, I also maneuvered his unit badly and a couple times it meant I coulnt shoot at the Hydra or another Monster because I forgot to make sure it was in my ark. So basically I'm grading how I used him.

Re: Screw City GT Chicago (List thoughts, reports and pictures)

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:37 am
by Lord Anathir
Three special characters! That can be rough. Do you feel like it affected your soft scores? Also, how were paint scores judged? Those few points you lost in paint could have bumped you up to a podium. You might be able to get a few more points without spending massive time repainting models. Customovement trays with edges with basing go a long way to helping the overall look. Plasticard is cheap and the entire job can be done in a week even at one hour a day. What do you think affected your sports score? It's been a while since I went to an event with soft scores and I figured it was always better to deliberately nerd your list and try to max the soft scores. I like soft scores but it's important they are done properly and eliminate as much bias as possible

Good stuff on the high placing.

Re: Screw City GT Chicago (List thoughts, reports and pictures)

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 4:10 pm
by Tiny
Despite missing details I found it very easy to follow the main flow based on your many pictures :)
Thank you very much for the battle reports.

Congratilations to your placing. ;)

Re: Screw City GT Chicago (List thoughts, reports and pictures)

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 9:05 pm
by Hortennse
Lord Anathir wrote:Three special characters! That can be rough. Do you feel like it affected your soft scores? Also, how were paint scores judged? Those few points you lost in paint could have bumped you up to a podium. You might be able to get a few more points without spending massive time repainting models. Customovement trays with edges with basing go a long way to helping the overall look. Plasticard is cheap and the entire job can be done in a week even at one hour a day. What do you think affected your sports score? It's been a while since I went to an event with soft scores and I figured it was always better to deliberately nerd your list and try to max the soft scores. I like soft scores but it's important they are done properly and eliminate as much bias as possible

Good stuff on the high placing.
I knew three special characters was going to be wowed upon down there, but I felt the wish to anyway because in my state (Michigan) there is no special characters comp in all our tournaments pretty much so I wanted to try some out for once. I figured Teclis wouldn't be too hated in his current form, and while Caradryan is nasty Alith Anar is kind of a wuss. They were both awesome in theory because of Savage Beast, and really that only culminated for me a couple times in the whole tournament.

As far as soft scores, I think the "comp" section is just if all 5 opponents said they would play your list again voluntarily, I'm Tom Baker on there so I got the full 5 there. I definitely try to win and don't try to worry purely about how people will view my army because I think there really is no accounting for taste and there will always be people who will give lousy comp scores because they got their butts kicked against the list, but I try to do a couple things in an attempt to not automatically warrant list-hate:
1. I don't play a tier-1 cheese army like Warriors of Chaos or Ogres (I don't consider High Elves tier 1 and I'm definitely lucky I didn't run into certain match-ups this tournament)
2. I try not to take what I consider to be the top thee appeals of the army I am playing. To me, for High Elves these are: Frost Phoenixes, Everqueen, and Book of Hoeth, all of which are absent from my list. I took what was left and tried to make something unique and effective. Yes, I took the Banner of the World Dragon, but literally all 13 of the High Elf players there took it from what I could tell, it's not really an advantage you can afford to give up.

Painting-wise, one thing I struggle with as far as the tournament paint scene, well one yes is movement trays and I need to get off my lazy ass and make some good ones. But the other thing I suffer for is the fact that I've painted these High Elves together with my brother over the last 15 years, and we've both experimented with different styles and we also have based things differently, so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of judges don't think it's a very coherent army for that reason. A 21 out of 25 would probably be explained mostly within those reasons. Really I'm never going to get a best Overall, I'm not sure what the podiums are you referenced but in midwest America the awards are just Best Overall, Best General, Best Painted, Best Sportsman, maybe a couple other specific categories and the best in race awards. Best General is the best I can realistically aspire to :P

Re: Screw City GT Chicago (List thoughts, reports and pictures)

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 9:11 pm
by Jimmy
Congratulations on such a great result! =D>

Re: Screw City GT Chicago (List thoughts, reports and pictures)

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 6:10 am
by Lord Anathir
Hortennse wrote:
Lord Anathir wrote:Three special characters! That can be rough. Do you feel like it affected your soft scores? Also, how were paint scores judged? Those few points you lost in paint could have bumped you up to a podium. You might be able to get a few more points without spending massive time repainting models. Customovement trays with edges with basing go a long way to helping the overall look. Plasticard is cheap and the entire job can be done in a week even at one hour a day. What do you think affected your sports score? It's been a while since I went to an event with soft scores and I figured it was always better to deliberately nerd your list and try to max the soft scores. I like soft scores but it's important they are done properly and eliminate as much bias as possible

Good stuff on the high placing.
I knew three special characters was going to be wowed upon down there, but I felt the wish to anyway because in my state (Michigan) there is no special characters comp in all our tournaments pretty much so I wanted to try some out for once. I figured Teclis wouldn't be too hated in his current form, and while Caradryan is nasty Alith Anar is kind of a wuss. They were both awesome in theory because of Savage Beast, and really that only culminated for me a couple times in the whole tournament.

As far as soft scores, I think the "comp" section is just if all 5 opponents said they would play your list again voluntarily, I'm Tom Baker on there so I got the full 5 there. I definitely try to win and don't try to worry purely about how people will view my army because I think there really is no accounting for taste and there will always be people who will give lousy comp scores because they got their butts kicked against the list, but I try to do a couple things in an attempt to not automatically warrant list-hate:
1. I don't play a tier-1 cheese army like Warriors of Chaos or Ogres (I don't consider High Elves tier 1 and I'm definitely lucky I didn't run into certain match-ups this tournament)
2. I try not to take what I consider to be the top thee appeals of the army I am playing. To me, for High Elves these are: Frost Phoenixes, Everqueen, and Book of Hoeth, all of which are absent from my list. I took what was left and tried to make something unique and effective. Yes, I took the Banner of the World Dragon, but literally all 13 of the High Elf players there took it from what I could tell, it's not really an advantage you can afford to give up.

Painting-wise, one thing I struggle with as far as the tournament paint scene, well one yes is movement trays and I need to get off my lazy ass and make some good ones. But the other thing I suffer for is the fact that I've painted these High Elves together with my brother over the last 15 years, and we've both experimented with different styles and we also have based things differently, so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of judges don't think it's a very coherent army for that reason. A 21 out of 25 would probably be explained mostly within those reasons. Really I'm never going to get a best Overall, I'm not sure what the podiums are you referenced but in midwest America the awards are just Best Overall, Best General, Best Painted, Best Sportsman, maybe a couple other specific categories and the best in race awards. Best General is the best I can realistically aspire to :P
Don't say never! If you want it you can get there or come close. The advantage of a nicely painted army is that once you do the job you have it for all tournaments you attend.