List Building for Tournaments.
So today I thought I’d go over some of my thoughts on my list building for some upcoming tournaments. I’ll be doing an Andrew’s Absolutes soon, but today instead of going over all the principals I use – I’m just going to go over 2 Lists I’ve recently submitted for BitSIII and why I am taking what I’m taking. Now you may be asking why I would be willing to tell the world what I am bringing to Blood in the Sun 3 before we go as its a closed list enviornment, but really it never bothers me when my opponents know what I am going to do because if they spend time planning, then I think just raises their chances to choke 
I decided to start with Blood in the Sun 3. This is a 90+ player tournament that is basically a No Comp enviornment. Even though its No Comp, it’s been my experience that generally lists here are not that extreme. Knowing this, I always look to give my challenge when I go. Recently I have been going back and forth with Jason Clark and we have been doing challenges. This time we opted for to do the Rocket and Rocketeer challenge. This basically means we both have to take a Helstrom Rocket Battery (The Rocket) and a Witchunter with the Flying Carpet and Brace of Pistols (The Rocketeer).
That being said, we are each trying to build lists around these units that will be effective as the one who scores highest overall wins the challenge.
So my list for Blood in the Sun 3:
Arch Lector on War Altar, Heavy Armour, Shield, Ring of Volnans (Lore of Beasts) – 288 Points
Light Wizard Lvl 4 Disp Scroll Warhorse – 241 Points
Heros
Witchhunter with Brace of Pistols and Flying Carpet – 105 Points
Engineer – 65 Points
L1 Wizard Warhorse - 77 Points
BsB on Pegasus, Full, Charmed Shield, Dragon bane Gem, Warrior Bane – 151 Points
Rare
Helstrom Rocket Battery – 120 Points
Helblaster – 120 Points
Special
5 Demi Griffon Knights S/B – 300 Points
Cannon – 120 Points
Cannon – 120 Points
Core
40 Halberders S/B + Mus – 250 Points
9 Inner Circle Knights Full – 255 Points
8 Knights S/B - 186 Points
The Thoughts behind this list and why I made changes to my Adepticon list are the following:
1. I firmly believe the Helstrom Rocket Battery is absolutely CRAP! This means I am assuming this is worthless and am really building attempting to build a hard 2280 point list – LOL
2. In my test games – the witch hunter acts kind of like a captain on a Pegasus surprisingly. It has been very effective thus far at least at redirecting.
3. I opted for 2 Light Wizards to allow for a STR 6 and STR 5 Banishment in the list to deal with Daemons. I found when I had a Str 7 and Str 6 Banishment that it was actually to much.
4. I look at Empire as an army that struggles against Monsters/Monstrous Cavalry so I brought 2 cannons to compensate.
5. I am opting for my 9 Inner Circle Knights, 40 Halberders, and 5 Demigriffons as my 3 combat units. Because of the FAQ where Holy Fervor doesn’t affect the Demigriffons themselves, I will opt to have my Halberders and my Inner Circle Knights by the Popemobile. The Halberders in particular have no Characters in them which means I can treat them as a Combat unit (Especially with the Ring of Volnans 1 time a game granting me the ability to cast Wildform for +1 Str and +1 T)
6. The Steam Tank has really annoyed me lately, so I have opted for some BS Shooting that is actually fairly reliable in this list in a Hell blaster and Engineer combo. Typically if you put these in the center of the board it can thin out your opponent before they reach your lines.
7. My Peg Rider has a magic weapon now for clearing Ethereal chaff now that the Overrun/Crumble Mechanic has been FAQ’d.
I think this list will perform very similar to how my Adepticon list worked and gives me a decent chance at going 3-2 or maybe even 4-1 over a weekend where I bring a Helstrom and a Witchunter on the Flying Carpet .
The other thing I’ll say is my plan at Adepticon didn’t work so I have revamped my strategy. I planned my weekend around playing what I really want which was 4 Daemons players and 1 Ogre list so I could go undefeated . This didn’t happen lol and I ended up playing a Skink army with 200+ BS Poison shots per turn as well as a lot of other weird stuff.. So this time I am anticipating playing 4 of those Skink armies and one VC army. I am hoping by planning to play the opposite that I will play what I want which is 5 fun games!
Either way I hope this gives you some insight into my specific Strategies and that you enjoyed this glimpse into my list design.
Painting Update
So as I’m just getting back into blogging, I thought it was good to let you know all know what I’ve been working on. With Adepticon being over, some of it isn’t Warhammer Fantasy Battles because to be honest, Ive kinda wanted a small break. So with the new FAQ’s out, Ive been more focused on on building what lists to take to Blood in the Sun 3 and Buckeye Battles 2013. Add in the fact that I’ve got 3 other Local tournaments coming up and between now and June I’ll have 5 Tournaments.
To take a meaningful break while still preparing for tournaments. Rob Phaneuf of the Magnificent Bastards has been keeping me updated lately on some of the sales from online companies such as Miniature Market and I picked up some stuff.
What you are looking at here is starter boxes from Dystopian Wars, Uncharted Seas, and other misc. items.
I decided to take some time and paint some of this stuff up along with my KoW Dwarf army I have been building. Here are some progress pics.
Now you might have noticed my dreadball team has green skin. After a couple of painting trials I basically came up with two different options.
The one of the left was flesh colored as most teams are painted, but the one on the right – Green almost Incredible Hulk like skin. This brought me to an idea for fluff. Whats to say that these space Dwarves are not so caught up in the idea of winning the game, that they alter their body with Gamma Radiation (ya I know, not an original idea). I kinda imagine in my head that they are the Hulks’ of the planet Krunk. In my head I see them as both feared and made fun of by those who are not of the planet Krunk. The fans of other teams and the other teams themselves have nicknamed them D’orks as in Dwarvish Orks, but the last time a team called them that in public – they were all killed immediately after the press conference.
Either way, I’m rolling with it as I like the color scheme and really that’s all that matters.
One thing to note about my recent painting – I’ve been using a different wash that was given to me by Ben Cone the host of Wisco Dice. It looks like this and works remarkably well.
I haven’t abandon the Devlan Mud I still own or Agrax Earthshade, but it is a good product. I’m pretty sure it’s one of Wisco Dices Sponsor’s who makes this, so I’ll see if I can get him to throw in a comment to tell us where we can get it from. Cause it is a good product.
Well that’s about it for what I’ve been painting for now and as today is May 17th, for those of you who are following the Painting Challenge that Consey and I have – I’m up today 219-217
As far as list building goes, I’ll get back to what I’ve been planning for Blood in the Sun 3 and Buckeye Battles on my next blog update. As for now I’ve got to get back to painting and editing Episode 40B – Our Orc and Goblin Review part 2.
Have a good one guys and gals!
Adepticon 2013 Swag Bag
So it’s been a while since I did a post and the dust has finally settled from Adepticon and work that I can start to blog again.
Today I figured that I’d go over what I recieved in my Adepticon Swag Bag for 2013. I know that its been a good while since Adepticon, but I think its still worth going over this for those who didnt get the opportunity to go.
What you’re looking at is a picture of all of the contents of the regular swag bag. I did not get any upgrades this year, I just wanted to get the basics as I volunteered.
Contents are the bag were:
Warmachine Starter Box – Cygnar (Privateer Press has been doing this for a couple years, its almost expected by attendees now)
Ravage Magazine – Feb-March Issue
Some little mouse miniature with a cart from On the Lamb Games
Cards for Zombiesmith, ATC (Warhammer and Warmahordes tournament in August), Table War (20% discount), Kickstarter reminder for Tablescapes from Secret weapon Miniatures
Round base from War Gamma
Some Beastman mini with a gun
2 Bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures (Every Year it just seems the detail on these gets better and better)
Fire ball from Armour Cast and 10% off coupon
Quick start guide to Flames of War
Sprue Tank for Flames of War
Overall, I have to say this year kinda felt *ho-hum*. I mean great job to all the Adepticon guys who set this up and continue to produce a great bag overall, but as someone who’s been going for about 6 years, I feel like its all the same thing I get every year. You have to remember I was there before the Warmachine boxes in the bags was introduced,The bag was much smaller then. And the 10 year bag when they gave us a Adepticon Mech for the anniversary, oh my lord was it awesome! Either way to make you salivate from home I will go over the contents….
Here’s a couple more close up shots so you get a good look at every thing though. It was a really solid bag.
Until next time though my friends, have a good one.
Painting update and a game for GLWL vs Matt Horst
So its been a couple of weeks since my last blog post, so I figured I’d give you all an update as to where I’ve been with painting recently.
After my experience at Crossroads GT (Which was a blast and if you want to hear about it, you can listen to Ohiohammer Episode 38), I realized that my list had some major weaknesses.
1. My banishment spells were lower strength than I’d like
2. the 40 Man Halberd Block of troops served for nothing, but an expensive Wizard Bunker
3. the Pistolers died way to easy. Playing with 2 or even 3 units is completely different than playing with only 1.
4. I had very little chaff that I could just throw away to stop the oncoming onslaught when I was forced in matchups that were no good.
5. Crossbowmen are truly worthless.
6. My inner Circle knight bus was sent off on its own all to often and while effective, did not perform as well as it could have.
To compensate for these faults I will be making the following changes to my Adepticon 2013 List:
1. The Halberd Block will drop to 18
2. I will drop the Pistolers entirely
3. I will drop the Crossbowmen Entirely
4. I will be adding 2 mounted Lvl 1 Wizards (Lore of light) that will be 77 points each and will put them in the inner circle knight bus
5. will be adding 2 units of 6 Great Weapon Knights to my core. as disposable chaff
The theory behind this is that I will be able to throw the fast parts of my army out in front (the Great Weapon Knights) to go either character or War Machine Hunting. With their 2 + A/S they are pretty resilient and should be able to deal with alot of chaff. If they die, they are also cheap enough, I wont care. The Lvl 1 Light Wizards are there for the Banishment Bonus (which now will mean I have Str 7 Banishment and Str 6 as well). This should help in all those potential VC/Daemons matchups that I may face.
So here’s some pics of progress:
Now One thing I didnt talk about is now that I am Painting these Great Weapon Knights, I thought to myself – “How Awesome would it be to have 50 for a single unit!” So I decided that I was going to work on 50 of them instead of just the 2 units of 6. I figure this will motivate me to finish them all at one time instead of putting them on the back burner.
Here is what the finished product looks like.
I like them, but I will say – now that I’m through with my first 12 I needed a break from knights. Luckily I have a Dreadball crew that I’ve been wanting to paint. Here’s a look at them painted:
I stuck with the same color scheme as my Altdorf army, mainly because I wanted to make these guys represent that town for Blood bowl as well (yet another game I’ve never played, but dream of.
Well that’s pretty much it on the painting end. On the gaming end, the GLWL is almost at a close and I had my scheduled game vs Matt Horst.
Matt Brought Empire vs my Empire army and while some argue the Mirror Match is kind of boring, I argue for the Empire that it is very challenging. Matt is a traditional fluff player and has often joked that I am only a tournament player in the past, as such I thought I’d take a fluffier list against him.
I brought:
A General on a Griffon with only Full Plate Armour, Shield, and Lance
A Arch Lector on a War Altar with no upgrades (yep no armour)
A Lvl 2 Death Wizard with nothothing on him
A Warrior Priest on a Barded Warhorse Hvy Armour and a shield
A Celestial Hurricanum
5 Demigriffons
A Cannon
A Mortar
A Master Engineer on Mechanical Steed
9 Inner Circle Knights Full Command
5 Demigriffons with Banner only and it was the Banner of Swiftness
43 Halberders Full Command
A BsB on Foot with Banner of LD
Matt Brought:
General on Griffon with the Obsidian Blade and Other Tricksters Shard
BsB on Foot
Lvl 4 Fire Wizard
2 Cannons
A Steam Tank
5 Demi Griffons
10 Inner Circle Knights Full Command
40 halberders
25 Swordsmen
20 Handgunners.
At first sight my thought was – “2 Cannons, a Steam tank, 10 Inner Circle knights, and 5 Demigriffons and this is fluff). That’s when Matt joked smiling – “Who do you think I learned from.”
To be honest, I wasn’t very confident in the matchup because basically everything I had – he had better. Further my woes in that we played Dawn Attack and my 5 Demigriffons ended on my Left Flank while my Altar and my Hurricanum ended on my Right Flank. This paired with all of his army rolling center or players choice and I figured I was in for a long game.
Notable Highlights of the game were:
- My cannon, with rerolls from the Master Engineer, blows up on my turn 1.
- My Mortar does a Direct Hit on his Horde of Halberders and causes 3 wounds (yes thats with rolling 28 hits and of course the str 6 missed)
- I move most of my stuff forward so I know I have the better charge distance, but that he has no real good options. My Griffon sets behind the Demigriffons on the Left Flank
- His cannons kill my Arch Lector off the War Altar on his turn 1
- He Moves to his left with the Inner Circle Knights unknowingly putting my Demigriffons in Charge Range.
- My Turn 2 I Charge and Wipe the Inner Circle knights with the Demigriffons and overrun into the Halberds. I also attempt Doom and Darkness on the Steam tank with the idea that immediately after I will cast Spirit leech, I miscast on 3 dice and have no dice left.
- His turn 2 – He misfires with his Steam Tank and rolls where he is unable to move. His Cannnons either Misfire or fall short of my Griffon. And he starts moving his army forward so he is in charge range, but I am not. Because of the way my Demigriffons Overran from the Knights, I only have 2 in combat with the halberds. I am able to still win and bring the rest of my unit within striking by Combat Reform.
- My turn 3 – I move my RH Flank back all by 2″-4″ respectively. This now takes his 16 inch Demigriff charge options (which are reliable) to 18 inch charges or even out of charge range. I move my Inner Circle Knights into charge range of the Steam tank for next turn. Which I assume he will use to turn and hit my Demigriffons (which I will not be able to recover from). Finally I try and cast Doom and Darkness again on the Steam Tank followed by Spirit leech. I again miscast on the Doom and Darkness but this time suck my only wizard into the warp. The Demi Griffon kill loads of Halberders, but they are still steadfast so they hold.
- Matt’s turn 3 – This I believe is where I won the game (albeit a gift from Matt). Matt knows his Steam Tank can move 360, but what he doesn’t know is that it can Charge 360. Because of this he sends it at the my Inner Circle Knights and rolls a 16″ move which gets there. He wins combat, but I do not run (which I wish I had). He also takes his Demigriffons and attempts a 18″ Charge on my Halberds (he needs an 11) which he thank goodness fails. His decision with the Steam Tank allows my Demigriffons to win combat, restrain from pursuit, and reform to a position where I can charge his Demigriffons in the flank during my turn.
- My turn 4 – I Execute the Charge on the Demigriffons, Win Combat and run them down. By now he is dancing with my Griffon, but by out maneuvering him, I am able to make a charge on to one of his cannons this turn. I kill it and overrun into the other one. Which I kill in Matts Turn 4. The Steam Tank takes no wounds from my knights and we sit there. I do throw my Engineer on Mechanical Steed in front of one of his units of swordsmen.
-Matt’s turn 4 – Reeling from the loss of his Right Flank and figuring out that he will not out maneuver my Griffon Rider purely on experience he moves his Griffon in pursuit of my Demigriffons (although after ensuing combat where I kill a block unit of Swordsmen and run them down he will not be in range). When I kill his second Cannon in this turn I do then decide to overrun into the Handgunners Flank as his Griffon will be unable to charge mine.
- My Turn 5 – At this point, I clearly have the game locked up. I charge my Demigriffons into his last unit of Swordsmen’s rear, further taking them away from his General on a Griffon. I also move my War Altar and Hurricanum close to the Demigriffons just to keep them out of charge range of his Griffon as well.
- Matt’s turn 5 – With only his steam tank in combat with my Inner Circle knights and his Griffon left on the board. Matt understandably is very worried about his Griffons Safety. He Starts to consolidate his losses and fly’s the Griffon 20″ away from my army. His Steam Tank finally grinds down the last of the knights in combat.
My Turn 6 and Matt’s Turn 6 – I make the Handgunners run and since everything else is out of range to do anything, we call it a game.
My Total – 2178
Matt’s Total – 878
Game Recap, I learned how much I missed my Banishment and how much I feel I need the 3 Cannons on the board. I was able to win this game without them and without much luck at all perhaps, but I definitely will be keeping them in most of my armies. Other than that, I felt I made the right decisions, but also that this game was not won by my great tactics – rather by Matt’s most minor mistakes. This along with my journey at Crossroads has taught me a lot lately about the little things. It turns out more and more lately that I recognize that its the little things that most often win or lose games.
Anyway Hope you enjoyed this post. Talk to you guys soon.
Adepticon Primer held Feb 23&24 2013 and painting update!
Well if you all haven’t been listening to the podcast, we just held an Adepticon Warhammer Fantasy Championships Primer during the last weekend in February. The Event pulled 20 people and was worth 80 Rankings points as it was a 5 game 2 day event.
The event was held at The Toledo Game Room. Daryll Dean (Store owner) Was kind enough to throw us support and allow us space to run the event.
Here is the Break down of winners:
Best Overall – Dustin Birkenkamp with the Only Ogre Kingdom Army!
Best General – Mike Mattox with his Dirty Dark Elves!
Best Painted – Eric Hanson with his Fluffy Manticore Dark Elf Army!
Best Sportsman – Todd McGee with his Extremely Fun Empire Army!
The Coveted Yell And Ball Award – Kirk Waganek who never once with all the bad luck in the world was caught Yelling or Balling!
Overall Scores were:
| Final Placing | Name | From | Total | Bonusprepay | Ontime | Paint | Listsubmit | Ontimesun | Totalsports | Total Battle | |||
| 1 | Dustin Birkenkamp | Toledo | 187 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 67 | 94 | Overall | ||
| 2 | Mike Mattox | Ft Wayne | 159 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 52 | 87 | Best General | ||
| 3 | Eric Hanson | Grand Rapids | 143 | 0 | 1 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 38 | 78 | Best Paint | ||
| 4 | Niel Hamilton | Lansing Mi | 137 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 47 | 68 | |||
| 5 | Adam Hilton | Ft Wayne | 136 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 1 | 1 | 44 | 71 | |||
| 6 | Jory Stewart | Ft Wayne | 133 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 53 | 76 | |||
| 7 | Eric Bemus | Ft Wayne | 133 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 39 | 77 | |||
| 8 | Jeremy Gottschalk | Toledo | 130 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 41 | 79 | |||
| 9 | Todd McGee | Lansing Mi | 129 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 57 | 50 | Best Sports | ||
| 10 | Douglas Mooney | Columbus | 128 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 51 | 57 | |||
| 11 | Nick Richardson | Toledo | 126 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 37 | 69 | |||
| 12 | Michael Carter | Dayton | 123 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 35 | 61 | |||
| 12 | Kent Sheldon | Windsor | 119 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 46 | 61 | |||
| 14 | Keith Ambrose | Dayton | 118 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 57 | 45 | |||
| 15 | Taras Toporowych | Cleveland | 107 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 29 | 59 | |||
| 15 | Frank Sczypta | Cleveland | 107 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 45 | 59 | |||
| 17 | Derek Cooper | Cleveland | 103 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 49 | 51 | |||
| 18 | Geoff Cossette | Windsor | 86 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 41 | 42 | |||
| 19 | Brad Schwandt | Detroit | 85 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 49 | |||
| 20 | Kirk Waganek | Cleveland | 80 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 41 | 26 | Yell and Ball | ||
Entry Fees were $25 for those who prepaid, and $35 for those who showed up at the door.
Total Prizes given at the event were $750 and no single player walked out with less than a $25 gift card. Not to shabby as lunches for both Saturday and Sunday were completely paid for!
The weekend was a blast – all the way from the group going to Famous Dave’s on Saturday to just sitting around talking after the tournament. Best quote of the weekend though had to be “It only has 10 Wounds!”
Now to leave you with Pics from the weekend!
And for those who might think I’m sluffing off on painting and that’s you Mr Cone…..
I’ve finished my 45 Halberders and I’ve got more on top of that done (I just need to post it)
Halberdiers Half Done.
So its been a couple weeks since I have posted and I don’t want anyone to think I have stopped painting. Truth is I slowed down a bit due to the wife getting on me, but I’ve still been doing my best to crack at it.
So I figure today would be a good time to showcase my Halberdiers that are half done. Below are 2 pictures of the 20 that I just finished. One with Flash and one without.
I have to admit, I am always amazed at how big the difference is when you choose to use your flash or not when taking a picture.
Now the unit isnt done and I’m building unit fillers for it currently right now. I got the idea to repurpose old Empire Griffons (they are to small to represent the new Imperial Griffons anyway). Here is the work in Progress.
The idea will be that these griffons will be in the center of each 20 block section. They are mounted on bases that I have built to be 40mm x 60mm. I am currently working on 4 Halberdiers (one to be posed on each side of each griffon) so that it looks like they are fighting as part of the unit. I have installed 6 neodymium magnets on each and covered the base with sheet magnets in order to hold them. I am confident that they will not be to heavy in my table war case to slide around and fall over, but I will not attempt to hold them upside down from the movement tray.
Lastly to be honest I think I will round out the unit with just some plain bases. The plain bases will add a couple of holes to the unit. This will represent the unit not being exactly in formation during battle and mid game casualties. I’ll probably have 2-3 empty bases in a 42 man unit and 4-5 in a 50 man unit. I think that will look reasonable at this point. And if it doesn’t – well then I’ll just have to paint more.
I actually got this idea from Rob Phaneuf from the Magnificent Bastards Blog.
I hope to have these done soon, perhaps even in the next couple of days. As soon as I finish, I promise to get another post up.
Until then Happy gaming and painting.
Andrew
