9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

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SpellArcher
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9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#1 Post by SpellArcher »

This is interesting because although the event wasn't huge several high-profile guys played and it was a good test to see how a 9th Age tourney would go in the UK:

http://warhammer.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic ... 0&start=30
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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#2 Post by Ferny »

I was there representing high elves (highborn elves) if anyone wants more details :)
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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#3 Post by sparkytrypod »

More details please :D
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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#4 Post by Prince of Spires »

Yeah Ferny, don't leave a cliffhanger like that. More details ;) :)

How did you do? How does a 9th tourney compare to an 8th one?

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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#5 Post by SpellArcher »

Ferny wrote:more details
+2

:)
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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#6 Post by Ferny »

I posted my initial feedback here: http://www.the-ninth-age.com/index.php? ... #post88627

I used a list derived from this one, and will update the post when I get a chance with what I actually used: http://www.the-ninth-age.com/index.php? ... ed-models/

I didn't do well. There were 8 players, I think 3 or 4 ETC level and they all ended top half. I played 5 games and managed to play the minimum possible number of WE - 1.

Game 1: Chaos Dwarves. Had a big Kdaii thing, hellcannon, 2x rockets and stuff. He castled on a hill and I decided I didn't come to Manchester to learn a new game system and hide in the other corner so I decided to rush it. Weathered the shooting quite well and made it into combat. Funny swing when he fired a rocket at my frosty, it scattered so the centre hole was on the line of my griffon BSB/hellcannon, we 4 upped it and my griffon took the hole to the face and died...thus freeing the hellcannon from combat and letting it also shoot! Around then my army just fell apart. We both played quite slow and didn't get far. We called it on time and I was ahead by 200 (11-9?) but after that it went to pot. I generally don't like playing vs gunlines as much as vs almost anything else and we were both I think quite slow, but a nice gentle intro to 9th. He was generous enough to not do a true castle too, so absolute kudos.

Game 2: Sylvan Elves vs Amit, the eventual winner. Scenario had us set up diagonally, with a river bisecting our deployments. I basically didn't have a clue what I was doing in this game. He was a great opponent but I didn't enjoy this game as much as others because I didn't have a plan - I think I was thrown by his list and critically the deployment. I also don't really know how my list works or the system. Anyway, lovely guy AND WE PLAYED ALL 6 TURNS! I need to exclusively play vs fast players so that we cancel out and finish! 20-0 loss.

Game 3: Mono Slanesh vs Kyrre, who had come across all the way from Norway! Wow they're fast. And their chariots can flee, wtf (great rule though). Felt this was a balanced game, decent match up for my list as no armour so shooting and basic magic can do lots of damage, and then low S hits will too. Couple of big mistakes on my part - I had a unit of baiting reavers on a flank which fled, he redirected into my other unit which he needed a 12 (with swifstride) to get...and he got it - careless, but I hadn't even considered it. It went from his flank being all scrunched up to him having 6 fiends right in my lines and me losing a unit of chaff for nothing. Other big mistake was also to do with mis-use of re-directors. I've gotten very rusty in a year of not playing, but he took advantage of my mistakes and hammered me T4 or 5 for probably 20-0. My favourite game of the day, very swingy throughout.

Game 4: Bretts (best painted). Wowzers, knight errants are like oversized chariots on steroids - they can charge massive! Quite fancy my chances against bretts tbh, they're quite restricted in playstyles by their...well, their style. Trebs are nasty, but I deployed wide to counter and sent fast stuff after them. Reavers discraced themselves by being killed by peasent treb minders. Epic fight with swordmasters, realm knights, rear charge peg lord and then finally questing knights made it in. We mutually killed a lot. I learnt again to be careful of charging units in in my turn which will lose in my turn allowing him a free reform. I think I may have won by a small margin but this may be lies on the internet. Don't think there was much in it either way. Another very swingy game, great fun.

Game 5: Empire...I like how their rare now forces choices between cannons, stanks and demis. He had 1 stank and 5 demis and no cannons...suits me fine. Also 60! halbadiers in a bus with loads of odd empire characters and stuff. Pistoliers are really good now, QtF and brace of pistols is ace, and 4+ fast cav are solid. I combo charged demis with DPs, frostie and griffon BSB on one flank and there was a slug fest with halbardier bus (including 1A S10 D6 wounds challenging lord vs my loremaster - we knocked 2 wounds off eachother round 1 and none in round 2!) and the seaguard in their flank and the stank in their flank. This is where high elves shine. Eventually I won (with only command left in my swordmasters) and won big (20-0). Another swingy battle which was great fun.

I don't know how many points I got from all the games and don't know where I came in the standings and kinda don't care. There were so few of us it's strange to think of it as a tourney, it was more like an awesome all weekend club session - and I mean that as a compliment rather than derogotory to the TO who was brilliant, organisation, support and looking after us all was faultless, the evnironment was great. All the guys were great too, not a bad match amongst them. I've said where I liked the games more or less, but the ones I liked less were due to my play or lack of it rather than the players, all top gents. Loved playing warhammer again after a break since AoS and moving house. Loved playing lots of different armies. Loved that the games felt balanced (apart from the wood elf one, which didn't feel balanced or unbalanced, I just felt lost - my bad not game design).

On balance I don't prefer it to 8th or 8th to 9th, it's just like warhammer but when a new army book comes out...but we've all got new army books, and there's some changes to the book (i.e. an edition update). I really enjoyed 8th and I think this is a vibrant new take on it. Really like it, hope I can get some games in locally.

(Incidentally, had my first KoW game this week also, and a game of 8th a few weeks ago. Still like 8th and will keep playing KoW if that's what the local scene is (it was 1000pts and intro/tutorial game, not enough to get a feel for), but I really enjoyed playing a 5-game tourney of warhammer again - looking forward to 9th. I hate that the scene has fragmented, hope it coalesces and for me 9th is the thing to do it on).
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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#7 Post by sparkytrypod »

Nice write up ferny, good to hear u enjoyed the tourny!

any comments on the changes from 8th? Dragon princes, swordmasters, bsb griffon etc?
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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#8 Post by Ferny »

Well, some big changes from 8 in terms of my list:

Core:
2x reavers is fairly typical, but I used to go cheap spear and muso only - didn't feel 5 bows did enough for me for the cost. Now bows are a cheap 1pt upgrade and we can get barding too, and it'd be rude not to. So same role but a shade more expensive and better.
Seaguard - wtf, who plays sea guard, worst of both worlds right?! Not in 9th. They've retained FIER, have got weapon master (allowing them to get nurgle vs front or select spears for KB and another rank), QtF which allows lots of shenanigens, ambush option and heavy armour upgrade, plus a magic banner. They're a core unit which can do lots of interesting things. These replace archer core of 7th ed book and now there's competition between them, reavers and helms, which in my list lost out. Archers and spears are their poorer cousins now.

Characters:
Loremaster is pretty much the same...but with the changes to magic system he can dispel as per a lv4 if you have another wizard and an item, and cast as lv4 if you have 2 other wizards...which means you don't need a lv4, and in fact, with greater spell selection, certainty, better defence and offence, and equal casting ability if supported, he's very strong option.
BSB on griffon - griffon rules have changed completely. Now very viable IMO. I didn't like having my BSB on him (eggs, basket, much), but I'll try a noble on it. Also new honour, mage prince, allows nobles and princes to take lv1 wizard. interesting.

Special:
I took a chariot - tiranoc chariots are now 60 and can vanguard for +15 - seems viable, made points back in most games. Might not bother with vanguard and get more in cheap.
Took two bolters - same - meh.
Took an eagle - same - decent
Took swordmasters. These guys rocked, but I didn't face much in the way of shooting. The wood elves really just had treeman attacks. Empire just had pistoleers and stank. Chaos dwarves had bigger targets (flying monsters, cav). slanesh had no shooting and limited magic. only bretts were a threat with trebs. I took the banner of missile protection but it's expensive and not exciting and didn't stack with anything i have. In this 5 game meta they were really good, in a bigger pool of armies they'd be pretty polar I think.

Rare:
You can take better DPs, worse frosty, cheaper fire pheonix and better sisters. Due to painted model restirctions I chose DP and frosty. Both do their jobs well. Interested to try teh other options. Rare feels like it has a ncie balance to it. Also offers lots of different playstyles, which is impressive with just 4 units.

Overall I really like our 9th book.
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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#9 Post by Giladis »

I am really glad you are liking it :D
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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#10 Post by SpellArcher »

Thanks for that Ferny, good feedback!

I can see why the Crystal is 70pts. It would never have got into the 8th edition army book, I don't remember any item having a 2-dice swing in any book. Given your Loremaster's dying, maybe it needs to go on an Archmage? So you're considering Scroll/Book now? With only one Arcane Item, Crystal might actually be a viable choice. Being able to scroll IF keeps DS almost must-pick though IMHO. Huge question for my army:

Can Mage Prince take an Arcane Item?

The Chaos Dwarf game sounded very unlucky with that scattering shot. Amit of course is an old poster here and brilliant with elves. What was in his army? I've looked into them a little and shooting still seems strong but nerfed slightly. Better combat options for them now. The mono-Slaanesh list sounds bonkers! Nice to finish on a big win after a challenging tournament. I think the venue got a bad reputation and there seems more support for 9th Age in the South.

That's a classic 8th edition thing isn't it, the Reform after combat and charge 180 degrees or whatever. So easy to forget. I agree, from my PoV too HE's are looking very interesting in 9th. I played just one event with the 8th book. I did pretty well but the playstyle was less interesting for me. Another question:

Are RBT now two max?
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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#11 Post by Ferny »

Mage prince is lv1 wizard so yes, can take arcane items. Agree load out is difficult now.

Ive listed amits army iirc in the feedback thread i linked earlier (I'm on my phone so too much to retype).

I enjoyed the atmosphere of the small tournwy, perfect for me given id never before played, and all the lads were gents. Top marks to marsh the to. Venue was really hood Imo, loads of space, no shortage of scenery, parking, In The North, really liked it. Cold, but i like that too ;). Absolutely cant fault it. I know the Cardiff gig has a good rep and this was a first do it isn't fair to compare, but its a shame more didn't come. I'm glad Kyrre got to play some top players tho, given how far he travelled. He's an etc candidate i think do hell be getting th practice in.

Yeah, combat reform is just something in ruaty kn after a years break. Gaming will improve my game ;). Rbt is max 3 now cod special. You can boost by taking shooty chariot, but Imo not great still. But sisters are ave now and rare, so if you go max shooting they don't compete. Id say 3 is enough in that context, but i never liked them much ;). I took 2 :)
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Re: 9th Rage - Tourney in NW England Results

#12 Post by SpellArcher »

Ferny wrote:Mage prince is lv1 wizard so yes, can take arcane items.
That is most interesting.

I remember a TWF thread after one of Tom Mawdsley's events where the venue got absolutely feedback-pasted. But as Amit said, it must have improved. Interesting to see a strong Norwegian player, bearing in mind Curu's comments about the scene there.

I'm pretty sure I'll need RBT because I intend to take combat infantry, so I'll need the board control. But testing will show all I guess!
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