Tournament Build Up: A nucleus of an idea...

Hi there!

In what will be the first in a very long time, this is a post that isn't about Tally Comp! Instead, I've decided to get back to what this was meant to be - a chance for me to chat about my hobbies. I've actually got something else to talk about in another post (and as it's Half Term that may come tomorrow in an epic display of procrastination... ;-) ) but for this one I'm going to look at my approach to my first event of the year - Call to War.

Call to War is an event run by Will Goodwin on the May Day Bank Holiday weekend for the past several years. I had been to them all up until last year, when I had to pull out to represent Team England at the 6 Nations event in Dublin. I don't regret my decision at all, as playing for England has been a highlight of my past year in gaming, however I wasn't going to pass up the chance to return to this excellent event. Call to War has always used the ETC comp in the past, and this year is no exception. However, I feel that this year the ETC comp is a lot more flexible, allowing several types of lists rather than almost restricting each army to a single viable style as they have in the past. As I can't seem to write an Ogre list that I like at the moment, my choices have essentially been narrowed down to Lizards and Vampires.

Who doesn't love a Fat Frog contemplating the universe?!

 

I looked through the comp (the latest version at time of writing is available here if you are interested) and had a think about the type of list I'd like to run. For the lizards, it became obvious that what I most wanted to try was the double Slann list made (in)famous in the previous Lizardmen book. With the ability to go over 25% in Lords, this was suddenly viable again, and I wanted to see if it would still work given the massive changes to the Warhammer World since it had disappeared.

The obvious choice when picking two Level 4 Wizards is what Lores to give them, and how to protect the investment. In a Lizard list, protection is easy - Temple Guard. A decent sized unit of them, and an Oldblood to babysit the unit and at least one of my Frogs would be fine. I decided to go with Light on the one in this unit, mainly to try for Speed of Light or Timewarp and enhance the abilities of the unit. On the other, Death is a nice option, but this involves taking one of my 5 Comp choices. Investing so many points in wizards meant I really had to take the Channel combo too, so that was immediately 4 out of 5 choices gone. Amongst other things, this meant only 1 mounted Scar Vet was allowed as each after the first is 2 Comp points. I decided to spend the last point on a 4th unit of Core skirmishers, letting me run my preferred set up of Core units. The rest of the list is below.

Saurus Oldblood: Enchanted Shield; Dawnstone; Sword Of Striking; Potion Of Speed; light armour 199
Slann Mage-Priest: Lore of Light; Battle Standard 325
Slann Mage-Priest: Channelling Staff; Harmonic Convergence; Lore of Death 345

Saurus Scar-Veteran: Armour Of Destiny; great weapon; Cold One 154
Skink Priest: Dispel Scroll; Lore of Heavens 90
Skink Priest: Scroll Of Shielding; Lore of Heavens 80

20 Skinks: Musician 110
20 Skinks: Musician 110
20 Skinks: Musician 110
10 Skink Skirmishers: javelin; shield 70
10 Skink Skirmishers: javelin; shield 70
10 Skink Skirmishers 70
10 Skink Skirmishers 70

26 Temple Guard: Razor Standard; Revered Guardian; Musician; Standard Bearer 439
6 Chameleon Skinks 78
6 Chameleon Skinks 78

2,398 points

(I should point out at this point that this is the second itteration of this list - many thanks to Raf Harbinson for helping me get to this point!)

Count Mannfred: amazing rules tied up in a hideous box!

As far as Vampires were concerned, this year the ETC have finally decided to play proper Warhammer and have allowed Special Characters into the fold. This presented an opportunity to use Count Mannfred - a character not allowed in the Undead Legion (which I prefer but are banned for this event) and one I've not used before. His rules are amazing - he is a Loremaster of both Vampires and Death, he is a Master of the Black Arts and he has 5 wounds! The downside is a lack of a Ward save (or an armour save beyond a token 5+) but I was hoping his casting ability would make up for this.

The army to surround Manny was pretty tough to put together. I started off with Ghouls and Crypt Horrors as combat blocks, and added a Mortis Engine to keep them alive. However, the comp then started to trip me up as I wasn't sure what to add for the last couple of hundred points. After many hours playing on Quartermaster, trying all sorts of variations, this is what my fevered brain came up with - Morghasts.

Count Mannfred 530

Wight King: Nightshroud; Seed Of Rebirth; shield; Battle Standard 164
Necromancer: Dispel Scroll; Ruby Ring Of Ruin 115

38 Crypt Ghouls 380
5 Dire Wolves 40
5 Dire Wolves 40
5 Dire Wolves 40
5 Dire Wolves 40
20 Zombies 60

8 Crypt Horrors 304
3 Morghast Harbingers 240

Terrorgheist 225
Mortis Engine 220

2,398 points

In order to keep the Mortis Engine, I went with the Special version. However, (again after a chat with Raf) the Rare ones are just plain better. They have a better save and have Halberds to help them kill stuff. But in order to get them in, the Mortis Engine had to go. This was a shame, as it is probably my best painted model, but with how few events I'm planning this year I'd quite like a decent list to take to them! After a quick redesign, the list now looks like this:

Count Mannfred 530

Wight King: Nightshroud; shield; Battle Standard 154
Necromancer: Dispel Scroll; Ruby Ring Of Ruin 115

38 Crypt Ghouls 380
5 Dire Wolves: Doom Wolf 50
5 Dire Wolves: Doom Wolf 50
5 Dire Wolves: Doom Wolf 50
20 Zombies: musician; standard bearer 70

10 Crypt Horrors 380
2 Fell Bats 32

Terrorgheist 225
4 Morghast Archai 360

2,396 points

After recognizing Manny's ability to raise Wolf and Bat units past their starting size, Dire Wolf Champions were added and a unit of Bats found their way in. The core elements of the list are the same, and it should be able to absorb a fair amount of punishment without giving up too many points (I hope!).

So that is my thinking at present! I have actually managed a couple of games this week, one each with the VC and Lizards. I'll try and sum up my thoughts in a future post, but let me know what you think of these lists. Which would you take and why? What changes should be made to make them better? If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear from you!