Midlands GT List Evolution

Well, the deadline for lists for the Midlands GT I discussed in my last post has come and gone, and I have sumbitted a list for what may well be my last tournament games of 8th Edition. I'll give my views on Age of Sigmar another time, once I have had a chance to read the rules and digest what sort of game it is. For now though, some thoughts about the list I will be taking and how it evolved.

CHOICE

Last time, I was having difficulty choosing between three different lists. I asked for some feedback, and a lot of people seemed to favour the VC and Ogre lists, but the most telling bit of advice was to take what I remembered most from 8th Edition. Of all three, the army that I feel will lose the most (in terms of playstyle) from the change to Age of Sigmar will be the Lizardmen, so I decided on taking them for one last spin.

Bastiladons, ho!

For those that don't know, I have also been into hospital since my last blog post to have a tumour removed from my ear. I am now starting the process of recovery, but it has meant that there has been no time for gaming between then and now. So, in order to improve my list, I turned to Twitter and to Theory.


Mark 2

The first thing Twitter suggested (alright, it was @ukrocky90 so doesn't really count!) was that Temple Guard are boring and I should take lots of dinosaurs. now I've never played the Monster Mash list to it's fullest extent, and I don't have a Carnosaur so couldn't really do it properly. However, I thought I would have a go at writing a list that fit that theme.


Saurus Oldblood: Talisman Of Preservation; Other Tricksters Shard; great weapon; light armour; Cold One 245
Saurus Oldblood: Piranha Blade; Charmed Shield; Potion Of Strength; Dawnstone; Cold One 270
Saurus Oldblood: Arabyan Carpet; Enchanted Shield; Dragonbane Gem; Sword Of Might; light armour 229

Tetto'eko 185

10 Skink Skirmishers: javelin; shield 70
10 Skink Skirmishers: javelin; shield 70
20 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 130
20 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 130
24 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer; 3 Kroxigor 300

Stegadon: Sharpened Horns 235
Stegadon: Sharpened Horns 235
Bastilodon 150
Bastilodon 150

2,399 points

4 dinosaurs, 2 Cold One Oldbloods and an Oldblood on a Carpet, and some Skinks in the Core to do the missions. Seemed like a list that could pack a punch, be a lot of fun in some games, but get shot or out-manouvered too easily to be really competitive.

This idea was quickly abandoned in favour of the Temple Guard. I really feel that the Comp in place for Midlands pushes Lizards towards this style of list, and if there are not a clear majority of Temple Guard lists once they are published I will eat my proverbial hat. Therefore, I went back to the Mk1 list and started making adjustments.



Mark 3

The original list had a couple of areas where it could be improved. The obvious thing to change were the Ripperdactyls - I've not had a lot of practice with them and 160 point of 4+ armour is quite a lot when they do nothing for me in terms of the missions. So, if I was going to drop something it would be them.

What to replace them with though? Well, the comp line that really affects Lizards (aside from the shot cap) is the one about Mounted Saurus, Tetto and a Dispel Scroll. So it would make sense to try and get another of these in, as I only have two in the original list. I know a Scar-Vet on a Cold One comes to around 150 points, so that would be a simple change. However, with the Arcane Vassal rule a Skink Priest is such a valuable commodity that one of these carrying a scroll would be a better investment.


Slann Mage-Priest: Channelling Staff; Harmonic Convergence; Ironcurse Icon; Lore of Life; Battle Standard 375
Saurus Oldblood: Dragonhelm; Other Tricksters Shard; Talisman Of Endurance; great weapon; Cold One 231
Saurus Oldblood: Enchanted Shield; Dawnstone; Piranha Blade; Potion Of Strength; light armour 249

Tetto'eko 185
Skink Priest: Lore of Heavens 65

24 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer; 3 Kroxigor 300
20 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 130
20 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 130
10 Skink Skirmishers: javelin; shield 70
10 Skink Skirmishers: javelin; shield 70

28 Temple Guard: Revered Guardian; Musician; Standard Bearer 422
5 Chameleon Skinks 65
3 Terradon Riders: Flaming Bolas 108

2,400 points

Dropping a single Temple Guard in addition to the Rippers gave me enough points to add in a Priest and a unit of Terradons. I'm not particularly good with these flyers either, but at least their sacrificial role is one that comes cheaper, and the Drop Rocks is rather useful in an age of small Elven cavalry units. I also gave them flaming shooting, just in case a large unit of Trolls made an appearance - Lizards struggle to find Flaming aside from using a banner slot.

The biggest change was a decision to go for Life on the Slann rather than Death. Death is an obvious Lore, and has some cracking spells in it, but for me it never does as well as it should. Purple Sun from the middle of an I2 unit is a Bad Idea(tm) and the Snipe Spells I can never get to work as they should. Dwellers though is always feared, and the idea of T8 Temple Guard is just funny! Plus, as I had Tetto I didn't need to rely on the Slann for his magic as much as in other lists.

However, I couldn't find the points for the Scroll, so the addition of Drop Rocks and some flaming shooting was not really worth it. On to the next evolution!


Mark 4

Now we started to get somewhere. The Terradons went, and in came a Bastilodon. I love these guys, they are the best thing to be added to the book in this edition, both in terms of models and rules. When running a single combat block, being able to boost their Initiative is massive, plus the addition of the laser beam will help against Elves and other chaff heavy armies. I also added the Scroll to the Priest - if that was the point of having him then he should get it, right?! I even managed to get the Ward save on the Oldblood up to a much more cannon-resiliant 4+ and return the Temple Guard to 29 strong.


Slann Mage-Priest: Channelling Staff; Harmonic Convergence; Ironcurse Icon; Lore of Life; Battle Standard 375
Saurus Oldblood: Dragonhelm; Other Tricksters Shard; Talisman Of Preservation; great weapon; Cold One 246
Saurus Oldblood: Enchanted Shield; Dawnstone; Piranha Blade; Potion Of Strength; light armour 249

Tetto'eko 185
Skink Priest: Dispel Scroll 90

24 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer; 1 Kroxigor 200
20 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 130
20 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 130
10 Skink Skirmishers: javelin; shield 70
10 Skink Skirmishers: javelin; shield 70

29 Temple Guard: Revered Guardian; Musician; Standard Bearer 436
5 Chameleon Skinks 65
Bastilodon: Solar Engine 150

2,396 points

Again, not a huge amount of change but we can see the style of the list. The problem here was that the extra points were found from the Skink/Krox unit in the Core section, leaving me with just the Temple Guard as a combat threat. Not necessarily a problem, that Skink unit has the potential to take down some smaller stuff even with only 1 Kroxigor. However, the balance of the list just didn't look right. So I tried to find the points elsewhere to get those two Kroxigor back.


Mark 5

Now we had a plan, it was simply a case of playing a bit to get those extra points needed to keep everything I wanted. At the end of the day, it seemed the obvious place was to lose a unit of Skirmishers. Not an ideal solution, as 2 units with Javalins are a really good nuisance team. But unfortunately I just couldn't see another place to get the points from. I also sacrificed the 4+ Ward on the Oldblood back to a 5+ Ward, and the Temple Guard went back down to 28.

Now a few people might see blowpipes on the skirmishers and laugh, but I've found a unit of these are not too bad. I've certainly found a few uses for them, and the very few times I've only had a single unit of skirmishers I've felt more comfortable when they've had blowpipes. Most of the time though they will end up being sacrificed for something, so whilst javalins and shields are a good defence they don't help when you're run down!!!

Here's my final list then:


Slann Mage-Priest: Channelling Staff; Harmonic Convergence; Ironcurse Icon; Lore of Life; Battle Standard 375
Saurus Oldblood: Dragonhelm; Other Tricksters Shard; Talisman Of Endurance; great weapon; Cold One 231
Saurus Oldblood: Enchanted Shield; Dawnstone; Piranha Blade; Potion Of Strength; light armour 249

Tetto'eko 185
Skink Priest: Dispel Scroll; Lore of Heavens 90

24 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer; 3 Kroxigor 300
20 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 130
20 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 130
10 Skink Skirmishers: Blowpipes 70

28 Temple Guard: Revered Guardian; Musician; Standard Bearer 422
5 Chameleon Skinks 65
Bastilodon: Solar Engine 150

2,397 points


After 5 iterations, I'm fairly happy with it. It should be able to do all of the Secret Missions. It has a pretty powerful combat unit with a character who can take on almost anyone. It has a variety of magic, not reliant on a single spell. It has maxed out the shot cap. It can push forward quickly, and it can hold back. Above all, it should be fun to play with!

If you have any suggestions, or want to discuss how you build your lists, please feel free to get in touch - either below or through Twitter, or via any other means. If I do manage to get any practice in with this list I'll try and document it, and I will certainly be back after the event to let you know how my first Midlands GT went.

TTFN!

Midlands GT lists

OK, so my plan of actually writing for this thing seems to disappear with alarming regularity.. Anyway, I'll try and keep something going on here, even if it isn't that regular!

A couple of posts ago, I started to talk about the lists I was thinking of taking to the Call to War event in Bristol. I didn't end up going to the event, as my health situation got in the way. However, the principle of going through a potential army list in an open fashion is not a bad one. So I thought I would do it again! My next event is going to potentially be the last event for 8th Edition Warhammer. With all the apparent changes in the works, 9th Edition (when it does finally appear) may be unrecognisable as the game we know and love today. So I have one last hurrah to send it out in style, and that is the Midlands Grand Tournament.

At first glance at the pack, this seems a very standard 5 game event held in Birmingham. However, there are some little changes to how the scoring works that make it potentially a very interesting prospect. The first of these is the Comp. Full details can be found here on TWF but to summarise it not only limits some of the choices each army is allowed but also changes the points some armies are built to. Luckily for me, I only have 3 armies to choose from at the moment - Ogres, Lizardmen and Vampire Counts. None of these are affected too badly by the Comp, and all have 2400 points to play with.
The second thing to consider is the win conditions. Each game will be based on a Win/Loss/Draw system, but you also get extra points from 5 Secret Missions and for controlling the Fortitude on the battlefield. The Secret Missions is something that has been done before in other events, but I think it is the first time I will be playing under them, so I want whatever army I choose to be able to at least attempt them all. The Fortitude side of things is easier to plan for, as I need to ensure I have plenty myself whilst trying to eliminate my opponents. They have also slightly changed how fortitude is calculated for this event, with the General only adding 1, Skirmishers or Fast Cavalry not counting at all, and any Core Infantry unit of 20+ models counting double. This is presumably to encourage Infantry units, but just means list building becomes a bit of a headache!

A breakdown of the Secret Missions

The final hurdle is the concept of a Scoring Unit. For this event, this means a "non Skirmishing, non Fast Cavalry unit with at least one rank of 5 or more models (modified by unit type / special rules as normal) that is not suffering from the effects of disruption or fleeing." Interestingly, they don't need to have any Fortitude to count as Scoring, except for that last Secret Mission.

So those are the limitations. The next thing I have to do is choose what to take. And this is where I hit a problem - I can't decide! I've written preliminary lists for all three, giving me an idea of what I could take for each race, but that's not really helped narrow it down either. So I'm going to put all three up here and ask for feedback.

Still not as good as an Ironblaster...

Ogre Kingdoms

First up are the Ogres. These are the guys that I started 8th Edition with, and actually got me playing Warhammer again after the three power books of 7th made me give up for a while. The comp on these guys is rather light, and in one aspect actually helps them out.

So given that I don't usually take the Crown anymore, the second Ironblaster seems an obvious pick. The second line is interesting, but I much prefer Tyrants and Firebellies at the moment so I'm not sure what I would do with a Butcher instead, even if he can take Beasts or Death. Gnoblars not being Scoring makes sense, but really limits where Ogres are going to get their Scoring units from.
This is what I came up with:

Tyrant: Charmed Shield; Talisman Of Preservation; Arabyan Carpet; great weapon; heavy armour 327

Bruiser: Sword Of Striking; Enchanted Shield; Talisman Of Endurance; heavy armour; battle standard 184
Firebelly: Dispel Scroll; Potion Of Speed; Level 2 Wizard; additional hand weapon 187
Firebelly: Hellheart; great weapon 179

9 Ironguts: Standard Of Discipline; Gutlord; Bellower; standard bearer; Look-out Gnoblar 437
5 Ogres: additional hand weapons; Bellower; standard bearer 175

5 Maneaters: 5× brace of Ogre pistols; Poisoned Attacks; Sniper; Bellower; standard bearer 330
3 Mournfang Cavalry: heavy armour; ironfists; Bellower 220
1 Sabretusk 21

Ironblaster 170
Ironblaster 170

2,400 points
Fortitude = 5

I could turn the Hellheart carrying wizard into a Butcher to save some points, that could get me a second Sabretusk, but Fireball is often a lot more valuable in the early game that Spirit Leech (on a Ld7 guy) or Wildform.

Reasons to take Ogres:

• Sentimentality - I started the edition with them, they're probably my favourite army, seems fitting I should end with them.

• Combat - There are several things in this list that smash face, and that is always fun whether you're doing well or not!

• Cannons - Given that I expect a fair few WoC armies, and therefore a fair few Daemon Princes, these are one of the best ways of dealing with them.

Reasons NOT to take Ogres:

• Purple Sun - Every time I take the fat lads, this spell ruins at least one game for me. I don't think a 5 dice limit on Death would change that.

• Lack of Practice - I've not played with Ogres for a while, so I would be rather rusty. I've also not got much time for games between now and the list deadline to fine tune the list.

• Poor in Meta - Ogres really suffer against Elves, WoC and DoC, all of which are very popular at the moment. I'd probably be under the kosh in a majority of match ups.

Love these guys as much as #FatCraig does!

Lizardmen

Of all the armies I still have, I have had the most success with my Lizardmen. They have been with me the longest, and they are the one's I've been using the most recently. They have been hit a little harder under the comp, the shot cap of 70, the 50% total for Characters, and the various Magic limitations mean they can't rely on their strengths as they normally can.

However, the addition of Kroxigor to Skink units at least gives me the option to keep an all Skink Core section, and the restriction at the top really only kills the Saurus Cavalry bus (which is a shame as I've wanted to try that for a while!). This is what I came up with, a variant on my dual-Slann list from Call to War.

Slann Mage-Priest: Channelling Staff; Harmonic Convergence; Lore of Death; Battle Standard 370
Saurus Oldblood: Dragonhelm; Other Tricksters Shard; Talisman Of Endurance; great weapon; Cold One 231
Saurus Oldblood: Enchanted Shield; Dawnstone; Piranha Blade; Potion Of Strength; light armour 249

Tetto'eko 185

24 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 150
• 1 Kroxigor 50
• 1 Kroxigor 50
• 1 Kroxigor 50
20 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 130
20 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer 130
10 Skink Skirmishers: javelin; shield 70
10 Skink Skirmishers: javelin; shield 70

29 Temple Guard: Revered Guardian; Musician; Standard Bearer 436
5 Chameleon Skinks 65
4 Ripperdactyl Riders 160

2,396 points
Fortitude = 9

I've hit the shot cap dead on at 70. and I've spent the majority of my character points in Lords, as is the way to go! I'm not too sure about the Rippers, as they are neither Scoring or providing Fortitude, but they could easily be replaced by a Scar Vet on a Cold One as I have the space in the Comp. I'm also not sold on Death on the Slann, as Purple Sun only really helps against armies that Lizards already do well against. Life would be an obvious replacement for Dwellers, but I could be tempted by Shadow to be a little more interesting.

Reasons to take Lizards:

• Familiarity - I've played them a lot, I've played them recently.Would mean that I am more familiar with how to play against different armies.

• Flexability - Given the variable nature of the Secret Missions, having an army that adapts as easily as they do would be a real advantage.

• Track Record - As I said earlier, my best results in this edition have come with Lizards. Seems to be the best hope for a decent finish!

Reasons NOT to take Lizards:

• Brain Power - Lizards means concentration. You need to be very careful to set everything up and therefore you need to keep thinking all the way through.

• Time consuming - Almost as a consequence of the above, games with Lizards tend to run long. I always finish, but I run tightest with Lizards.

• Vulnerable - They rely a lot on their characters to do the heavy lifting, so a bad roll or two with them could send things downhill quickly.

Why she would choose Ghouls as company is beyond me...

Vampire Counts


Given that the Comp has banned the Undead Legion, my Undead option defaults to Vampire Counts. I much prefer the combined list, as my army is themed to Lahmia and the Tomb King stuff helps with that regard, but you can still make some good lists with the base book. Again, Comp on Vampires really just limits screams and ethereals, and even lets them take some advantages from the Legion list like nut crumbling if the General dies.

My last attempt at a pure VC list had Count Mannfred at the helm, and I saw no reason to change from that in this system. The adding dice limit is easily negated by Master of the Black Arts, as that affects the Winds roll itself, and he really helps make the most of the small Scoring units VC get in Core via Summon Creatures of the Night.

Count Mannfred 530

Wight King: Nightshroud; Dragonbane Gem; shield; Battle Standard 159
Necromancer: Scroll Of Shielding 80
Tomb Banshee 95
Tomb Banshee 95

5 Dire Wolves: Doom Wolf 50
5 Dire Wolves: Doom Wolf 50
5 Dire Wolves: Doom Wolf 50
20 Zombies: musician; standard bearer 70
20 Zombies: musician; standard bearer 70
20 Zombies: musician; standard bearer 70
39 Skeleton Warriors: Lichebone Pennant; Skeleton Champion; musician; standard bearer 240

9 Crypt Horrors 342

Terrorgheist 225
3 Morghast Archai 270

2,396 points
Fortitude = 10

This is actually the second draft of this list. The first had a 4th Morghast, a 10th Crypt Horror, a unit of Fell Bats and a Dispel Scroll instead of the two Banshees and the Scroll of Shielding. However, getting the Ld10 from Manny meant that the Lichebone Pennant became an option for the Skeletons therefore the Scroll of Shielding should be able to shut down some spells in a similar way for less. The Banshees also help protect Manny from anything too nasty that gets into combat with him, as Doom and Darkness combos really nicely with their scream.

Reasons to take Vampires:

• Hold their points - In a Win/Loss/Draw system, holding your own VPs is almost as good as getting them from the enemy. The only loose points in the list are the Dire Wolves, and as long as Manny gets to cast before they all die they become much more survivable

• Pretty - Even though they've just been dipped, I still think they are the best army I have from a painting point of view.

• Hobby-tastic - I've really enjoyed playing Vampires recently (though mostly as Undead Legion) and they are the army most likely to get me excited for hobby stuff.

Reasons NOT to take Vampires: 

• Slow - The way I like to play VC is as a footslogger, and that means they are slow both to move and to react. The Terrorgheist and Morghasts help, but the rest just shambles.

• Mannfred - Not meaning that he is bad, but the model is horrible and I would have to buy him! He's also rather short on protection aside from his 5 wounds.

• Fun? - I'm not sure playing this list would actually be much fun. A fun VC list is usually awful (see my Zombie Dragon report!) and a good VC list usually isn't.

So that's it! The final part of this (rather long winded in the end, my apologies!) article is a plea for help. Either in the comments below, or via Twitter (@Sandals_ajw) please let me know what you think I should take. If there is actually some responses, I may even put it up to a vote if I can't make up my mind, so please help me decide!!!

Thanks for reading, see you next time!

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!

Battlefield Birmingham List, Part 2

Time for the second look at my VC Dragon list!

So, at the end of the previous post I had a first draft of my list, and had arranged a game against some High Elves. Well, suffice to say the game did not go too well and it ended as a big loss. I don't mind losing games, especially when they were a lot of fun, but as this was essentially prep for an event I thought about how I could improve things. Firstly, I focused on the positive aspects of the game:
- The army is certainly fast! With 4 flyers, 3 Vanguards and 2 monsters that can march 16" even on their own, I managed to redeploy almost everything to one side of the battlefield in 2 turns.
- The Terrorgheist scream is really useful! I've been on the receiving end of these before, but getting to take off a unit of Reavers turn 1 was very satisfying.
- The baby Vampires are actually pretty hard! The fighty one nearly took out the Elven Prince on the charge, and had I remembered my Potion of Foolhardiness I may have actually done it. The BSB was especially useful to stop things losing wounds in combat, an ability I had almost overlooked when building the list.

All that being said, there were a great many disappointments also.
- Magic. With only 3 level 1 wizards, all on the Lore of the Vampires, I had nothing really to draw out the inevitable Dispel Scroll. This meant that when it mattered I was forced to go for IF which cost a baby Vamp a wound, leading to her downfall.
- Target choices. I threw the Lord into a unit of Dragon Princes with the Terrorgheist, hoping to kill enough with the scream and in combat to break their Steadfast. However, I rolled poorly and forgot the Breath Weapon, meaning my Lord was stuck in place. This lead to a countercharge and enough combat res to pop the Lord.
- Vargheists. I knew that Vargheists are pretty easy to kill, so I was worried about throwing them into anything. I ended up wasting them completely for three turns, then their Frenzy kicked in and I was forced to declare long charges that I didn't make.

So, the list needed improving. The first change was easy, and out went the Vargheists. In their place, Hexwraiths looked appealing. They didn't have to worry about missile fire, and they added a fourth Vanguarding unit to the list. They were also the perfect choice to threaten enemy War Machines that could kill off the big monsters. Job done. This saved me 80 points, so I began to revise my character selection.

I decided that the way to improve my magic phase was to switch the two baby Vampires to the Lore of Death. That would at least give me two of Spirit Leech, and with the ruling at the event that Inspiring Presence can be used for this spell, I could be Ld10 as long as I was within 18" of the Dragon. That should scare some people into using their scroll in the first few turns! This meant that I lost out on a backup caster to keep the army going if the Lord died. The easiest thing to do was to put in a Necromancer, and I moved the Dispel Scroll over to him - freeing up points on the BSB.

The only things left that I can change are the items on the characters. I wanted the Lord to be able to get out of scrapes once she had become stuck, so a Potion of Strength seemed like a good idea. This would be used if she was ever in combat with something at the start of my opponent's turn, hopefully freeing her up to charge again in my next turn. I also upgraded her to a Level 2 mage, letting her have 2 shots at getting either Vanhels or Hellish Vigour (amongst the best spells in the deck). This obviously needed points from somewhere, and the compromise was the Sword of Might and Quickblood on the BSB. I saw her in more of a casting and support role though, so a lance should still le her help out if needed. Moving a few things around, I also found the points for the Book of Arkhan. An additional Vanhels could be crucial at the right time, especially giving rerolls against an opponent who also has ASF.

With these revisions, the list now looks like this:

2500 Vampire Counts

Vampire Lord: Charmed Shield; Talisman Of Preservation; Potion Of Strength; Quickblood; Level 2 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Zombie Dragon; lance; heavy armour. 616

Vampire: Enchanted Shield; Book of Arkhan; Dragonbane Gem; Level 1 Wizard, Lore of Death; Hellsteed; lance; heavy armour; Battle Standard. 207
Vampire: Sword Of Anti Heroes; Dragonhelm; Luckstone; Potion Of Foolhardiness; Quickblood; Dread Knight; Level 1 Wizard, Lore of Death; Hellsteed; shield; heavy armour. 231
Necromancer: Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Dispel Scroll. 90

36 Crypt Ghouls 360

15 Dire Wolves 120
5 Dire Wolves 40
5 Dire Wolves 40
20 Zombies: musician; standard bearer. 70

5 Hexwraiths 150

Terrorgheist 225
Varghulf 175
Varghulf 175

2,499 points


I have another game penciled in for tomorrow evening, against the same High Elf opponent I played last time. Hopefully the additions and changes should make for a different result than last time! I'll try and take some photos and maybe there will be a third blog post in the offing! :-)

Battlefield Birmingham List, Part 1

Finally a post about Warhammer!

My next event is Battlefield Birmingham, on 15-16 February. This event is slightly different to some others, as it is 2500 points rather than 2400. It may not sound like a lot, but that extra 100 points means that the allowance for Lords increases to 625 from 600. This meant that a Dragon riding Vampire Lord has enough allowance to get enough equipment to actually survive for more than a single turn!

I've wanted to run a Dragon list for a while now. Dragons are brilliant, and a very characterful part of the game. However, the two armies that I have been playing recently don't really have the option to have a Lord mounted on a Dragon. Closest I have been was using a Lord of Change in a couple of events in 2011, or a Hunter on a Stonehorn for last year's Mersey Meltdown.

Unfortunately though, mounting a Vampire Lord on a Dragon is not just putting all your eggs in one basket, it's putting all your eggs in a paper bag and throwing it around a bit. It's not a particularly safe option to say the least! But I'm not that bothered by that. I don't get to play much Warhammer at the moment, so I'd rather play an enjoyable list to start the year. There are other events that I'll run a more standard list for, but for this I'm going out of the box! It also helps that I recently got hold of a fantastic Dragon model that I want an excuse to use!

My Dragon, in the process of being assembled

 The point of this blog post is to run through my list design ideas and show how my list develops. Usually I wouldn't post this before an event, but as I'm going to this purely for the fun of the game I don't think having my list out there beforehand will be an issue. I'm also posting my first draft of the list which was written a fair while ago, so some items and things may have changed since then. I'll get to these changes as I go through the process.

There is minimal comp for this event, but before I go through my thoughts on my list it's always a good idea to consider the limitations in place. For Vampire Counts, there were the following points to consider:
 - Units have a cap of 450 points and 40 models (as all Undead are Unbreakable). Doesn't include characters though!
 - Up to 3 units with the Ethereal rule are allowe.
 - Up to 3 units of Dire Wolves are allowed.
Not too much comp at all. There are a few other restrictions that help, namely that other people are limited to a maximum of 3 war machines - so I may face fewer cannons that I normally would!


Firstly I needed my Vampire Lord. I knew I wanted her on a Dragon, so that was already a massive 465 points taken care of. you can't put such an important model on a big mount without protection, so next up was the Talisman of Preservation and Charmed Shield. My army is Lahmian themed (hence calling my Lord 'her'!) so Quickblood is not only a really strong in game choice, but it fits the theme. After all of these, I had ran up a bill of 545 points. Before I spent any more, I moved on to the rest of the army.

Core is almost the easiest to do in a VC army, as very little of it is any good at all. The best unit in the Core section is probably the Dire Wolves, and I was only allowed 3 units of them. Seemed like a good starting point though, so in went 2 units of 5 and a unit of 15. The bigger unit is mainly to eat points, but also gives me a faster moving block to help out the characters when they hit combat by adding ranks. I then put in a minimum size unit of zombies to hold a banner, as Blood and Glory will be played and I'd quite like to not automatically lose that one! Finally, a big block of ghouls filled my 600 point Core minimum. I'd normally have a block of skeletons, but these usually have a fair few characters in and without character support ghouls usually do better.

Having spent nearly half my points I turned to the Rare section. Again, this would be relatively easy to fill, as an idea was forming of how I wanted to play my list. The advantage of the Dragon is that it is fast - it can fly 20" per turn with a possible additional 8" move from Vanhel's Danse Macabre. If this is the major asset of the list, I needed to build on that theme. I needed to only add in things that were fast, and could redeploy a lot more quickly than a standard VC army. The 3 Dire Wolf units help with this, as they can Vanguard as well as move a minimum of 9" a turn and can Swiftstride their charges. To fill Rare, I went with this theme too, adding 2 Varghulfs and a Terrorgheist. It would probably be better to have 1 Varghulf and 2 Terrorgheists, but that was 50 points more expensive. Also in terms of models to build and paint I knew I would need a fair few more than I already have, so the fact that I already had 2 Varghulfs made this decision for me!

I went to Heroes next. I could get away with a single zombie unit with a banner, as I was thinking of taking a Vampire BSB to help with Fortitude and march tests for the Dragon. To fit the theme thought she would have to be mounted on something, and a normal Nightmare made the most sense. Then I saw that they have the option to go on a Hellsteed. This is sort of like the Pegasi that other races get to use in that it is a flying cavalry mount, and the idea of having lots of flying Vampires really appealed! Not only did I add in one Vampire on Hellsteed to be my BSB, but I put in a second as an additional fighter. Equipment on these proved a lot more problematic that I thought. Quickblood on them both made sense thematically, and I tried to get them as good an armour save as I could. One got the Dragonhelm and the other got the Enchanted Shield. Along with Heavy Armour and the mounted bonus, they each got to a 2+ save, which was as good as I could find!

When designing Heroes, I try and keep in mind the role they will play in game. Are they going to be doing a lot of fighting? If so, what are their targets? Are they more a support Hero, augmenting the unit they are with or casting magic? The Vampire Lord, with the Dragon's attacks, Breath Weapon and Thunderstomp, should be able to take on units of troops and be OK. She would come unstuck though if she was challenged by a defensively geared character with a good Ward (the standard Tzeentch BSB on Disc springs to mind). I therefore wanted one of my Heroes to be able to take these challenges instead. I gave her the Sword of Anti Heroes to up her strength and attacks, and a Luckstone to give her an extra chance to make a save. I also found a few points spare at the end, adding a Potion of Foolhardiness for that extra attack when she charges. I decided I would keep her on Lore of the Vampires, as I was expecting the Lord to die at some point and I didn't want the entire army crumbling away to nothing.

The other Hero Vampire I thought could be my Scroll caddy and BSB. I envisaged her in a support role, taking Invocation more often than not and casting it to heal the monsters. She already had the Enchanted Shield for protection, and I simply added the Sword of Might to help against heavily armoured targets.

All of this left me with just over 200 points that I wasn't sure what to buy with. I wanted something else fast, and looking in the Special section I saw Vargheists. I'd never used these before, mainly as I have an idea for how I want them to look and I'm struggling to find models that I like to represent them. But 5 of them could make a useful flanking force and they filled the gap in the list.

And that was it! My list now looked like this:

Vampire Lord: Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Charmed Shield; Talisman Of Preservation; Ironcurse Icon; Quickblood; Zombie Dragon; lance; heavy armour. 566

Vampire: Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Dispel Scroll; Enchanted Shield; Sword Of Might; Quickblood; Hellsteed; heavy armour; Battle Standard. 244
Vampire: Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Sword Of Anti Heroes; Dragonhelm; Luckstone; Potion Of Foolhardiness; Quickblood; Dread Knight; Hellsteed; shield; heavy armour. 231

38 Crypt Ghouls 380
15 Dire Wolves 120
5 Dire Wolves 40
5 Dire Wolves 40
20 Zombies: musician; standard bearer. 70

5 Vargheists 230

Terrorgheist 225
Varghulf 175
Varghulf 175

2,496 points

It looked ok, and very fast as was the plan. With such a different style of play I knew I needed a game to test them, so I played one against the High Elves of Simon at a local club before Christmas. This game gave me a load of insights into the weaknesses of the list and ideas on how to change it, but as this is already looking quite long I will go through them in the next post!

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings about list design, if you have any comments please feel free to get in touch!