Reflections on the Loremaster Barglecon 3

[Eltherion2]

Okies I went to a 20 player Tourney and rather than doing full length Battle Reports I thought I would reflect on how the units performed.

Here is the list I took pretty much MSU with 2 big blocks and way more characters than I usually take.

Army General: Prince, Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield, Giant blade, Talisman of Endurance
Loremaster Lvl 2, Book of Hoeth, (4+ WS)
Noble, BSB, Shield of the Merwyrm (4+ parry), Sword of Might
Noble, Eagle, Lance, Dragon Armour, Charmed Shield, Golden Crown, Potion Foolhardiness 3+ AS and 6+ WS, 2+ vs. Flaming
Mage, Lvl 2 High Magic, Dispel Scroll, Obsidian Trinket (MR1)

26 Spearmen, FC, Banner of Eternal flame
5 Ellyrian Reavers
6 Silverhelms, Shields, Champion
6 Silverhelms, Shields, Champion

24 Phoenix Guard, FC, Razor Banner
5 Shadow Warriors (-3)

12 Sisters of Avelorn
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Great eagle

Swedish 13 gave me the perfect soft score bonuses.


Round 1 Watchtower VS. Orcs & Goblins

15:5 win

Round 2 Meeting Engagement vs. Sarah's High Elves

The Interesting thing about this game was the only unit in common that with both our armies were the reavers my opponent had bows on her reavers I had spears. She had Swordmasters, Seaguard, Archers, Tiranocs, Griffin Noble, and 2 Level 4's.

13:7 win due to comp adjustment

Round 3 Blood & Glory vs. High Elves

Faced a double Dragon list supported by cavalry and I got totally out maneuvered.

15: 5 loss

Round 4 Dawn Attack vs. Lizardmen

I managed to kill the Slaan with a sneaky Eagle Noble Charge.

14: 6 win


Round 5 Battleline vs. Chaos Dwarves

The chaos dwarf player had a relatively soft gun line list.

The Chaos dwarf player castled in the center and I took out 2 characters 1 block a unit of archers and 2 war machines.

I would have won the game 11: 9 had I sat back on turn 5 but decided to go for the points and a podium spot.

15: 5 loss


The tourney was quite fun overall not sure my overall placing as yet.


Unit by unit performance summary
rating system ****= Excellent ***= Good **= OK *= Poor

Characters

Loremaster***
This was my first try with the Loremaster in a Tourney and he definitely needed the Book of Hoeth to compete with the level 4's. The range of spells he could use meant he could always be useful but I found I was trying to use Wyssens as my primary combat buff on the PG. I used the Death Snipe to take out the Goblin Lvl 4 in game 1 but the rest of the time was using boosted Fireballs mainly. The Miasma and Iceshard also had their uses. A big weakness with this guy is he miscast and lost 2 Wizard levels making him useless for the rest of the game.

Prince **
The army general having Leadership 10 with the re-roll for BSB was great and the extra combat punch was useful. Probably overall not quite as good as the Loremaster.

Level 2 High Mage **
A bit underwhelming to be honest I really didn't like the High Magic spells. I was unlucky game 2 when I tried to unforge the Banner of World Dragon and rolled a 1. The MR1 was ok but most opponents targeted other units anyway. So basically the main use was a scroll caddy.

Noble BSB ***
I really liked the Shield of Myreworm, Sword of Might build making the BSB survivable in combat, however I did miss the reaver bow. I think the Sword of Anti Heroes might be better on this guy than the Sword of Might.

Noble on Eagle****
The Tactical flexibility this guy provided was really good he was a game winner in game 1 and 4, even though he died in the other games. I probably could have used him better in the other 3 games. Definitely the unit which surprised me and well worth the points invested.

Core

Silverhelms****
These guys killed their points in most games and were my primary shock troops. The only game they didn't do much was game 3 and this may have been partly due to my poor deployment.

Reavers***
Useful but overshadowed by the Silverhelms to some extent. They did help dictate the movement and hinder the opponents vanguards.

Spearmen Banner Eternal Flame **
These guys had a big target on their heads saying kill me. They soaked up a lot of the shooting from warmachines and archery as well as Magic. Their contribution was hard to measure but I think archers would have been a better option however Swedish Comp din't allow this. The Flaming Banner was of some use vs. Trolls.

Special

Phoenix Guard ****
These guys were most of my army and points but survived all the games except the last round 5 when I committed them to combat instead of preserving their points.

Shadow Warriors **
I hadn't used these guys much in the past but they were useful for their scouting but had very little damage output. The scouting helped prevent the opponent vanguarding which was their key use. They also sometimes drew fire away fro my main army and my opponents dispatched troops to deal with them at times which was useful.

Rare

Sisters of Averlorn****
A staple part of my army lists these days and performed well in 4 of the 5 games.
Game 1 killed Mangler Squig, Pump Wagon, helped soften up a troll unit,
Game 2 helped kill a reaver unit
Game 3 died
Game 4 killed 2 Skink units + Tedo Echo
Game 5 killed hobgoblin bow unit and a Dwarf Engineer

Eagle ***
These guys are still amazing and I am finding you only need 1 as Reavers can play a similar role.
Game 1 re directed 8 trolls and survived the game.
Game 2 re directed Swordmasters
Game 3 died
Game 4 re directed Saurus
Game 5 helped kill a warmachine

RBT's ***
Only using 2 was still quite good popping off the few extra wounds on key units is useful. I made a big mistake game 2 not killing a reaver and this eventually killed the RBT but this also prevented it shooting for 4 turns. I also deployed an RBT poorly game 5.


Overall I was happy with how the list played though I played poorly in 3 of the 5 games.

[Ben E. Violent]

Where did your Loremaster hang out, mostly? Does he have the luxury of range, staying back in an archer unit, or is he used up front in the combat units? I really like him in theory but I've only ran one game with him.

I think a level 2 of High just doesn't have enough spells to be useful. The occasion ward save increase is nice if the spells align with the battle, though.

[Eltherion2]

I used the Loremaster in the Spear unit a lot of the time but also in the PG. He might have been good in the sisters in a couple of games but didn't try it.